“Half of Greece and Crete are in Turkish colors”
Turkey is escalating its aggressive rhetoric with the most recent challenge by Devlet Bakhtseli, who displays a “map” that includes all the Aegean islands, including Crete. Evangelos Apostolakis, honorary head of GEETHA, admiral e.a. and former Minister of Defense speaking to ERT emphasized that “Turkey’s claims are completely absurd and outrageous”.
“This goes beyond all logic. I don’t understand by what logic someone displays such a map. This exaggeration goes into dangerous channels,” said Mr. Apostolakis to “Syndeses”.
“We have never seen such aggression before. They exceeded every limit. Half of Greece and Crete are in Turkish colors,” he said.
Attempting to analyze why Erdogan and their associates make such provocative statements, he emphasized that “tension and provocative statements serve the situation, but up to a point. Here we have gone beyond what we have learned.”
He even added that “state borders are defined by international law” while regarding the new Bakhteli challenge, Mr. Apostolakis stated that “we cannot discuss absurd claims since there is no logic”.
He even characterized Erdogan’s strategy towards Greece as “very aggressive”, expressing the opinion that he is not stopping anywhere.
Responding to how Greece should react, he added that diplomacy has the first word, provided the strong Armed Forces and the drawing up of a strategy to deal with this issue that will not be resolved soon.
“We have to find a way to make these confrontations sustainable. We cannot worry every day whether we will have a war and what will happen to Turkey”, Mr. Apostolakis pointed out regarding Greek-Turkish relations.
Speaking about the new chapter in US-Turkey relations and Erdogan’s efforts to secure Biden’s support for upgrading Turkish F-16s, he said Congress is refusing.
With reference to NATO and the proposal of high-ranking American officials to temporarily withdraw from the North Atlantic Alliance, he argued that “there is no regulation for the expulsion of a NATO member state”.
And as Mr. Apostolakis commented, despite any public statements, “at this moment, no one wants to stop him. This does no one any good. Right now, Erdogan is uncontrollable.”
“What happens depends on us. We are not going to back down. Therefore, if he decides on a conflict or an episode, he should understand that the damage will be very great”, argued Mr. Apostolakis, stressing that “it is important that our position and attitude be strong”.
