Why Turkey is stepping up against Greece

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We must always interpret with caution the rhetoric of politicians and governments when we are in an election period, when the abominations that are uttered are for internal and electoral use.

Turkey is obviously no exception in this regard. The country is in a pre-election period and the economy risks becoming Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Achilles’ heel, with inflation soaring and the pound continuing to fall. It is therefore logical in this situation to emphasize a nationalist withdrawal, especially at a time when the Turkish opposition, with the exception of the left-wing and pro-Kurdish HDP, shares this nationalist tone.

But it would be wrong to assume that this is all purely nationalist rhetoric. It also concerns a more general change in Turkish policy.

The escalation of revisionism

What we usually call “revisionism” in Turkish foreign policy, ie the questioning of agreements governing bilateral relations and the arbitrary interpretation of international law, is an element of continuity in this policy. But we can see an escalation of claims. From questions relating to the delimitations of territorial waters and the continental shelf, we have moved on to the casus belli in the event of the expansion of Greek territorial waters, to the rewriting of international law for the exclusive economic zone and now to the direct challenge of Greek sovereignty in the large islands in the north and east of the Aegean Sea.

This is clearly part of a strategy believing that the world has opened a new chapter and that there is therefore room for a radical change in the way the borders were drawn and the “rules of the game” set in the second half of the XXe century. We now consider that everything can be the subject of negotiations, even border issues. It doesn’t matter if it turns into co

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Source of the article

That Vima (Athens)

Faced with a sharp drop in its advertising revenue, “La Tribune”, owned by the Lambrakis press group (Ta Nea, Tachydromos, etc.), has chosen the radical solution of stopping its paper edition.
This historic daily, however, keeps its Sunday version. Circulated in more than 300,000 copies on Sundays, it remains among the best-selling newspapers in the country.
That Vima thus became an online daily. Its site is updated several times a day with reports, editorials, information and exclusive investigations.

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