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Greece’s top military brass have fired off a set of unusually stern warnings to Turkey, threatening to crush its troops if they dare to land on any disputed islet in the Aegean Sea – but Ankara didn’t mince its words either.
Reacting to violations of Greek airspace by Turkish jets over the Aegean, Defense Minister Panos Kammenos warned that Ankara would pay a price. “If they make the slightest move, we will crush them,” Kammenos threatened. Athens wants peace and harmony, he said, but it won’t “concede a single centimeter” of its land.
The minister was visiting a military outpost on the small Aegean island of Leros, so the bellicose rhetoric could be explained by his desire to raise the troops’ morale. But it was also echoed by Admiral Evangelos Apostolakis, chief of the Hellenic General Staff.
“If the Turks land on a rocky islet, we will raze it to the ground. That is a red line that is espoused by the government,” Apostolakis declared. He suggested that a military confrontation with Turkey is a possibility, but said “along with the US and the European Union, we want to ensure that the Turks do not reach that point.”
It comes after Greece’s military said that a pair of Turkish F-16s made a flyover of the island of Kastelorizo in the eastern Aegean on Thursday, minutes after a helicopter carrying Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos traveled through the area en route to Athens.
Turkey, however, will not allow “any fait accompli in the Aegean and the Mediterranean,” according to Gen. Hulusi Akar, chief of its General Staff. There is no way that Turkey will back down “from the rights of our country and our people,” he said.
Despite formally being NATO allies, Greece and Turkey share an uneasy history. The modern-day Turkish Republic was founded after a bloody war with Greece and Western powers back in 1923.
Hostility between Athens and Ankara persisted throughout several decades, reaching its peak during the Cyprus Crisis, which almost erupted into full-scale war after Turkish troops invaded the north of the island in 1974.
Currently, Greece and Turkey have several disputes over the Aegean. The sea is dotted with dozens of small islets, making delimitation of the maritime border especially challenging. Several clashes between both countries’ warships have taken place over the last few years, along with numerous mid-air encounters of Turkish and Greek jets.
At times, both countries have tried to come to an agreement over the issue, but to no avail so far.
Erdogan is just trying to create enemies to consolidate his supporters and Greeks just play to his hands. Without enemies Erdogan’s leadership is obsolete.
I wonder if Greece will use the S-300’s they inherited from Cyprus to shoot down Turkish jets if they invade the mainland one day.
why not? ofc we will.
Greek S-300 version is obsolete and their masters in the West won’t allow them to acquire the S-400 from Russia. Turkey will take delivery of a least 2 battalions of S-400 in 2019 and after that Greece will be toast.
they are never obsolete…and turkey will never get anything no f 35 no s 400 and you know it
War is madness. War never is a solution of any problem. War brings devastation to nation and economy.
“after Turkish troops invaded the north of the island in 1974”: Which happened after the Cypriot governement decided to join Greece…
Leros belongs to Turkey and have always belonged to ancient Turkey until Odysseus was caught by seducing mermaids. Clearly not Turkeys fault. The population on Leros are tired of dictatorship, IMF debt and US soldiers. They want democracy now and have invited Turkey to defend them against the brutal suppressor Greek government.
HAHAHAHAHA Man you are on very strong stuff indeed. Must be bloody expensive.
You are out of your mind! Just what do you mean by ”’ancient Turkey’
Congratulations Tommy, you managed to piss off some random Greeks on their first visit to SouthFront.
Are you from Leros? I have visit Leros 2 time in the past 5 years and i only had seen Greeks there. I mean they speak greek , feel greek and all of them have the Greek flag out of the houses and restaurants and all that proudly as they used to say….
The population has been forced to do it by gun point and under threats of Feta cheese and olives sanctions. Behind the curtain they have asked Turkey and the International community to help them to freedom.
So they forced to speak to tourists about their country and how proud are they about greece?They forced them to believe in orthodoxy? Man 1.where are you from? 2.where is the proofs of all that?
come and take it coward kebab, i hope our goverment turn fascist and the muslim minority suffer
The Greeks can barely crushcrush grapes.
We Greeks have been crushed by “our Western Friends”. In case you haven’t noticed who F@ckEd us financially.
Also stopped us from importing far too far CHEAPER OIL from Iran,, at advantageous prices and extra 6 months CREDIT above everyone else.
OH and in case you don’t know, just look up the Petrol prices World wide in comparison to our BUYING POWER We are the most expensive.
Right! if you think that we Greeks are going to fight on behalf of USA and the West as well , when HISTORY shows us who has been LOOTING us from time immemorial you only need to visit THEIR MUSUEMS.
Thank you.
In your opinion why don’t the Greek people vote for a legitimate opposition party like the Golden Dawn or the KKE?
Because BOTH, KKE and Golden Dawn do NOT support OUR OWN CURRENCY. they support A FOREIGN PRIVATE ONE INSTEAD…..with NO backing, as in Gold or Military (yet)
I thought Golden Dawn wanted to go back to the Drachma.
NO! their income (From Legal and ILLEGAL activities) are in EUROS. Therefore their “savings” will be gone if the EURO is declared Null and VOID. …In Greece. They have to answer where they got it from.
Legal= that is State income from NGO’s
ILLEGAL= Illegal smuggling from People e.g Protitution and cigarettes plus “Protection”
Yeah but that’s the official currency at the moment, so how do you expect them to use another currency that doesn’t even exist? My question was why do Greek people keep voting for mainstream parties who have proven to be sellout and don’t try out something new? I’m not even Greek and I see Golden Dawn offering a different path that can save Greece from its current condition.
If one would have dystopian nature, then one could think that ‘they’ would like to let every political national stress-point on the planet explode at the very same time…
Nothing to see here…. https://www.algemeiner.com/2018/12/21/netanyahu-reaffirms-israeli-greek-ties-at-joint-summit/
I see you found the smoking gun for the Greeks bravery…
Before saying anything, please take a look at a map to understand the situation: https://www.google.com/maps/@36.1563133,29.5655479,13z
Kastellorizo is among the farthest islands and islets from Greece. The island in question is just 2.5 km away from the Turkish coastline and inside the Turkish waters and airspace. To be exact, the fuss is not about this island but a few rocks between it and Turkey mainland, even closer to Turkey. The Greeks are willing to destroy those rocks, that’s how they are worth for crying out laud.
These “breaches” of airspace is going to happen in the future, there’s no practical way to avoid them.
Exactly what I said. Any idiot can see this island belongs to Turkey and not the crybabies in Athen who wants more EU funded welfare and more US weapons bought on taxes and debt.
THE WHOLE OF TURKEY belongs to the Greeks. Just dig in any neibourhood to find our ancestors buried in. Modern Turks know in their hearts that they really islamisised Greeks or Yunan (ϊωνες=Ionian) quite a lot Turks still speak our language in secret. I heard them abroad.