Sabah: How Erdogan’s reaction coincides with Tsipras’ warnings

The coincidence in which the reaction of the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the warning of the leader of SYRIZA, Alexis Tsipras coincide, is highlighted in an article of the Turkish newspaper Sabah.

The article first quotes the “warnings” of the Turkish president to Greece and the leontarizations, as after the famous “for me now Mitsotakis yoke”, after the speech of the prime minister in the Congress, followed the cancellation of the High Level Strategic Council Greece-Turkey, with The newspaper described the move as fair as “the Greek prime minister broke a promise he made during his visit to Istanbul in March 2022 – that the two governments would not allow third parties to interfere in their bilateral relations”.

Presenting the Turkish arguments that Greece allegedly has an anti-Turkish agenda, which it presents to the US and the EU, the alleged militarization of the islands, the defense agreements with the US and France, the article points out that what Erdogan said is clear: “Greece, not Turkey, it sabotages the normalization process that started in October 2021 “.

Then comes the Tsipras warning, which Sabah says “reiterated Erdogan’s warnings, accusing Mitsotakis of turning the country ‘from a center of stability and confidence in a difficult part of the Eastern Mediterranean into a leading outpost in the East. “In fact, it’s a vulnerable outpost because (and I hope it never gets to that) if we ever had to defend our sovereignty – let ‘s not fool ourselves – we’ll be all alone.”

“It was a logical warning that reminded the established of Greek politics of what follows in the medium and long term,” Sabah writes.

So based on the two rhetoric, the Turkish newspaper concludes that Greece has pushed itself into a corner as on the one hand it accuses Turkey of aggression while on the other it goes “militarizing the islands, claiming 10 miles of airspace and talking about “12 nautical miles of territorial waters – just like its maximalist requirements vis-.-Vis territorial jurisdictions in the Eastern Mediterranean and in relation to Cyprus.”

Of course, the question arises from the Turkish columnist whether this practice really contributes to the fulfillment of Greek interests and is characterized as “unwise” that the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean become a “place of competition for the representatives of great powers instead of a place of energy and tourism. “.

After the columnist was convinced that he had overthrown the Greek argument, he proceeded to the usual show of strength of Ankara, according to a regular tactic according to which: since Turkey normalized its relations with the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel and “Egypt to follow” Turkey thwarted Greece’s efforts to set up an anti-Turkish bloc and Greece can no longer break the law to convince itself of the legitimacy of its arguments against Turkey.

The columnist then refers to “Article 60 of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties between States and International Organizations or between International Organizations (1969)” [την αποκαλεί απλώς “Σύμβαση της Βιέννης για το Δίκαιο των Συνθηκών”] -in which both countries are parties- states that a substantial breach of a bilateral or multilateral treaty entitles the affected party to invoke that breach in order to suspend the operation of its treaty. in whole or in part or terminate it “.

He goes on to quote “Article 13 of the Lausanne Peace Treaty, which deals with the demilitarization of the islands, links demilitarization to the ‘maintenance of peace’. In other words, demilitarization is an important condition for the relocation of the relevant islands to Greece.” says the author and closes the article: “Furthermore, since the Paris Peace Treaties (1947), to which Turkey is not a party, have created an ‘objective regime’, Turkey is complying with its obligations under this treaty and Turkey should therefore be considered capable of asserting its rights rooted in the treaties.In short, Athens must restore the demilitarized status of the islands without further delay – unless it wishes to do so. to question its sovereignty over the islands of the Eastern Aegean “.

Of course, this Sabah columnist selectively and deliberately “ignores” Article 60 of the Treaty of Lausanne, which states that you will acquire free of charge all the property of the Ottoman Empire located in this territory “.

In addition, Article 13 cited by the columnist states, inter alia, that “the Ottoman Government will prohibit its military aircraft from flying over the said islands”, meaning Mytilene, Chios, Samos and Ikaria and of course the fact that the Aggressive actions from the payment of the Turkish Republic have been carried out by Turkey, while Greece according to the treaties is trying to keep the peace, so no violation is recommended on this.

And of course it is not in his interest to invoke Article 15 of the Treaty of Lausanne which says: “Turkey relinquishes in favor of Italy all rights and titles on the following islands, namely Astypalea, Rhodes, Halki, Karpathos, Kassos, Tilos, Nis , Kalymnos, Leros, Patmos, Lipsi, Symi and Kos, the now occupied by Italy and the islands dependent on them, as well as the island of Kastellorizo ​​”.

Petros Kranias

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