Abdullah Bozkurt on the Nordic Monitor website believes that Ankara is preparing an invasion of the Greek Aegean islands and is therefore preparing the climate with provocative statements.

The head of Turkish diplomacy has been targeted not only by Athens, but also by Washington, London and the European Commission due to the provocative statements he made on a Turkish TV network, questioning the sovereignty of the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, and as a result he received categorical answers. However, Bozkurt believes that Ankara‘s choice to turn its rhetoric and public discourse to sovereignty issues is anything but accidental, saying that in this way Turkey is “preparing the ground” for an invasion of the Greek islands of the eastern Aegean.

He stresses that Turkey is creating a pretext to invade the Greek islands that are close to the Turkish mainland, such as Lesvos, Chios, Samos, Ikaria, Lemnos and even Samothrace.

It then refers to the announcements, comments and remarks of Turkish government officials, as exemplified by the statements made by Mevlut Cavusoglu in an interview with the state television network TRT:

“These islands were given to Greece by the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923 and the Paris Peace Treaties of 1947 on the condition that [Greece] would not arm them. But [Greece] started violating [the provisions] in the 1960s. These islands were granted conditionally. If Greece does not stop [arming them], the sovereignty of these islands will be challenged. If necessary, we will issue a final warning. ”

The Turkish columnist goes on to explain that the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has already taken specific initiatives at the United Nations, notifying the UN Security Council that Greece is “violating” both the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the 1947 Paris Peace Treaties, which established the status of the eastern Aegean islands, in an “attempt to legitimize internationally a possible invasion [of these islands]”.

In particular, Turkey‘s Permanent Representative to the UN submitted a letter to the Security Council on 13 July 2021, in which he said that “the continued, deliberate, persistent and material violation by Greece of the demilitarization provisions of the Lausanne and Paris Peace Treaties, which are essential for the fulfilment of their object and purpose, constitutes a serious threat to Turkey‘s security“.

Turkish soldier during a landing exercise

In the second degree, the senior Turkish diplomat stresses that since “Greece is violating basic provisions of the treaties under which it acquired sovereignty over the islands“, meaning their demilitarization, “Greece cannot invoke the same treaties and provisions against Turkey to proceed with the demarcation of the maritime zones“.

The Turkish Permanent Representative to the UN then claimed that Greece, acting unilaterally and cumulatively since 1960 and in clear violation of the relevant provisions of these treaties, is in material breach of its obligations for demilitarization, with the concentration of troops, the creation of permanent military installations and the conduct of numerous military exercises and other activities on the islands of the eastern Aegean.

As expected, Greece could not stand idly by in the face of Ankara‘s provocative diplomatic actions and the Greek Permanent Representative to the United Nations responded to the Turkish diplomat‘s letter, claiming that Greek sovereignty over the eastern Aegean islands does not depend on any obligation, such as demilitarization, while she also questioned the Turkish claims, saying:

“Greece rejects all Turkish claims contained in the aforementioned letter, as well as the allegations that Greece‘s sovereignty over the eastern Aegean islands is dependent on their demilitarization, as completely unfounded and arbitrary in bad faith. ”

“Preparing the ground” with international and domestic legitimacy

But apart from the fierce Greek-Turkish diplomatic confrontation, the issue of the eastern Aegean islands is deliberately, according to Abdullah Bozkurt, on the agenda of the government, which is being promoted in the domestic press and media in Turkey, with officials, party officials and propagandists often coming out publicly and questioning the status of these islands.

An excerpt from an interview with Mevlut Cavusoglu, which the Turkish analyst quotes to defend the central argument of his article on the possibility of a Turkish attack, is indicative of this:

“The Greeks see a threat from Turkey and that‘s why they violated the demilitarization order. Is there a provision [on equipping islands in the event of a threat] in the treaty? No! Go on, let‘s assume that there is a threat [from Turkey]. Would you think you could prevent this threat with a few soldiers and weapons that you put on these islands?”