The Aegean Sea is not calm Why is the Greek and Turkish swords rattled

Guangming Daily reporter in Ankara jingkai

Recently, Turkey and Greece, the "enemy allies", have begun to "tear each other apart". First Athens declared that the Turkish Air Force had sent 23 consecutive fighters to the Aegean Sea in 24 hours and invaded Greek airspace 78 times in a row, and then Ankara unceremoniously rebuked Greece, accusing Greece of using the S300 anti-aircraft missile system deployed in Crete to lock in Turkish fighters flying in international airspace, and strongly condemning its "hostile provocations" against "NATO allies". With the "air confrontation" between you and me, the smell of gunpowder between Greece and Turkey is getting stronger and stronger, and the sky over the Aegean Sea is suddenly cloudy.

Centuries of history have been feuded

Although Greece and Turkey are neighbors with water and clothing, ethnic and religious grievances have a long history. Historically, the Aegean region, including the western Anatolian Peninsula, was the centerpiece of the spread of ancient Greek civilization. In 1453, after the Destruction of the Byzantine Empire by the Islamic Ottoman Turks and the annexation of large areas of southeastern Europe, where present-day Greece is located, the Orthodox Christians in the former Byzantine Empire either converted to Islam or became inferior second-class citizens. In the 400 years that followed, the oppressed Greeks revolted several times, but all of them were ruthlessly suppressed.

In modern times, with the decline of the Ottoman Empire, various ethnic groups in southeastern Europe have set off a surging national liberation movement. In 1821, the Greeks took the lead in firing the first shots out of 400 years of slavery, which triggered a domino effect of national independence within the Ottoman Empire and accelerated the collapse and collapse of the decaying empire. In the First World War at the beginning of the 20th century, Greece and Turkey joined the two major military blocs of the Entente and the Allied Powers respectively, and fought in the Balkans. With the defeat of the German-Austrian clique, the ottoman Empire, which had made a wrong bet, was forced to sign the Treaty of Sèvres and faced the tragic situation of being slaughtered by the Allied powers and their little brothers. In this wave of partition, Greece, at the instigation of Britain and France, even sent nearly 100,000 people as "vanguard soldiers" to attack Anatolia and Thrace under the banner of implementing the "Treaty of Sèvres", hoping to take the opportunity to restore the great Greek kingdom that dreamed of a thousand years. However, the Greeks bumped into strongman Mustafa Kemal.

The old pain is not even, and new resentment is added

Although Turkey, which was poor and weak at that time, barely managed to hold the peninsula of Asia Minor, it was forced to give up a large part of its European possessions under the pressure of the great powers. Greece is clearly the biggest beneficiary, not only Mustafa Kemal's hometown of Thessaloniki is assigned to it, but also almost all the islands off the Turkish coastline are also assigned to Greece (there are about 2500 islands in the Aegean Sea, and Greece has more than 2400 of them), and the "beams" of Greece and Turkey have become deeper and deeper. In 1952, under the efforts of the United States and Britain to win over and match, Greece and Turkey joined NATO at the same time and became "allies" in law, but in reality the two countries never "turned enemies into friends", and there were always sharp differences between the two sides on the ownership of the relevant islands in the Mediterranean And the division of the territorial airspace and territorial sea and continental shelf, so that Greece became the main force blocking Turkey's entry into Europe.

After entering the contemporary society, on the basis of the original historical feud, the Greek-Turkish contradiction has been integrated into the economic and energy factors. Both countries are countries with relatively scarce oil and gas resources, and their energy supply is highly dependent on imports. Since the beginning of the 21st century, a large number of subsea natural gas resources have been discovered in the eastern Mediterranean Sea centered on the island of Cyprus, and proven reserves are enough to change the energy landscape of Europe and the Near East.

With the fierce competition for gas fields in the eastern Mediterranean, Greek-Turkish relations have "old pains and new grievances", and frequent armed confrontation dramas have been staged in the sea. Critical friction between the armies of the two countries is already commonplace, and military and political leaders of the two sides have even repeatedly issued harsh words of "not hesitating to fight a war." The Eastern Mediterranean became another powder keg in Europe after the Balkans.

Greece and Turkey fight for armaments, and Europe pulls the bias

In terms of comprehensive national strength, Turkey is obviously superior, and the title of NATO's second largest conventional armed force is by no means a waste of time, and even the Soviet Union in its heyday was quite jealous and did not dare to go south easily. In contrast, Greece, although its national strength is a few points inferior, but because it owns most of the islands along the coast, it has always grasped the initiative of the local battlefield.

In order to break through the near blockade of the Greek island chain, the earth side can be said to be racking its brains. In the context of the continued economic downturn in China, we are still "tightening our belts" to build the premier aircraft carrier battle group around the Mediterranean Sea. At present, Turkey's first domestic aircraft carrier "Anadolu" has been flagged, and the outfitting construction of the second "Thracian" is also in full swing. These two large ships with a displacement of 28,000 tons and can carry 12 vertical/short take-off and landing fighters have been highly expected by all walks of life in the Turkish military and politics, and are regarded as the "revival banner" that recreates the glory of the Ottoman sea in the era of Barbarossa Hayreddin. The Turkish Navy hopes to achieve the coveted "blue water breakthrough" with these two "national heavy weapons", and become the third largest naval power in Europe after Britain and France, forming a "crushing situation" for the Greek navy next door, thus reversing the passive situation of "internal defense" in one fell swoop.

In the face of the rapid expansion of the Turkish Navy, the Greek side did not hesitate to let go, and immediately ordered four of the latest French "Belhara" class "all-digital" stealth air defense frigates, and announced that it would spend another 190 million euros to significantly expand the Crete Naval and Air Base, intending to build it into an "unsinkable aircraft carrier" in the eastern Mediterranean. It is foreseeable that the arms race between Greece and Turkey will continue to chase you and us for a long time to come. Objectively speaking, compared with Turkey, which has a relatively complete military industrial system, Greece simply relies on the "buy, buy, buy" model under great pressure. However, around the Greek-Turkish dispute, NATO members almost without exception stand on the side of Greece and wave the flag. First, both culturally and religiously, European countries have a natural affinity for Greece. Second, Turkey and Russia have been fighting fiercely in recent years, which has really made the Western "bigwigs" a little upset.

In order to ensure the "balance of power in the eastern Mediterranean", France, which has always looked bad at Turkey, directly sold and half-sent 18 Gust fighters to Greece with a large stroke of money, of which the first 8 were directly allocated free of charge from the active fighters of the French Air Force. The United States on the other side of the ocean is even more unkind, not only looking for a kick to kick the soil out of the F-35 supply chain, and even preparing to resell the 6 F-35s originally produced for the Turkish Air Force to Greece! This is clearly embarrassing and humiliating Turkey.

The retreat was not blocked

For a time, Turkey seemed to feel pressure from many sides. However, the Turkish government has shown quite "calm and calm" behavior towards the collective pull of European countries, after all, since joining NATO 70 years ago, as the only Islamic country, being isolated and snubbed is the norm. As long as the Bosphorus is still in its own hands, Ankara is sure that neither the United States nor the European Union dares to do too much, let alone allow NATO to fight each other. The various vents of anger in the United States and Europe have added to the blockade, which precisely reflects the trepidation and helplessness of Turkey's unruly.

Although the Greek-Turkish dispute has intensified, the current situation is generally controllable, and neither side has blocked the retreat route. On the one hand, in the face of Russia's Jedi counterattack under the pressure of the United States and the West, NATO's "gang unity" is of paramount importance, and the United States and Europe will never allow Greece and Turkey to "fight each other" and interfere with the grand plan of "eastward expansion and containment of Russia.". On the other hand, although the two "wrongdoers" shout fiercely, in fact, their respective homes are also "a mess" and have no time to take care of him.

For Turkey, the domestic economy is in jeopardy, the depreciation of the lira is "a thousand miles", and there is no enough confidence to fight with Greece at the moment. The recent series of tough stances by the leadership of the Justice and Development Party (Turkish Justice and Development Party) are nothing more than attempts to deflect the intensifying domestic tensions and pave the way for next year's presidential election. On the other hand, Greece, which knows that its comprehensive national strength and geographical value are far inferior to those of its close neighbors, has no intention of biting the nerves of turkey too much as it does not constitute a substantial infringement on the national dignity of the country. In the face of the "big guys" in the United States and Europe, Athens really can't afford the "guilt" of pushing Ankara into russia's arms. A few days ago, in order to declare its own tough position in the Aegean Dispute, the F-16 fighter formation of the Turkish Air Force has repeatedly cruised the North Aegean Sea, but the Greek side has not taken any further countermeasures against such a "provocative move". It can be seen that Athens is also worried about the possibility of shooting off the gun.

Having said that, the Aegean Sea, where the strategic interests of Greece and Turkey are intertwined, is destined not to be calm.

(Guangming Daily Ankara, September 7)

Guangming Daily ( 2022-09-08 12th edition)

Source: Guangming Network - Guangming Daily