Turkish media: ‘War and Aegean’, the crisis in Imia and Greek pilots who do not have ‘combat experience’

Without arguments, but with a clear purpose for the internal audience, the Turkish media put on their agenda the possibility of war “with Greece” or “in the Aegean”, wanting to emphasize the hypothetically decisive stance of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. who does not declare war, but resolutely warns Greece.

“If Erdogan had entered the ‘Let’s declare war on Greece’ mode, his grades would have risen. He did not resort to populism. He warned Greece decisively,” a columnist wrote in the Hürriyet newspaper. The article then goes on to discuss the Sevres syndrome that has plagued Turkish politics for a century. The syndrome says that foreigners are trying to divide Turkey and the article in the Turkish newspaper presents it as follows: “Despite all the challenges from Greece, Erdogan’s determination yesterday was very important. It gave me confidence. What did Erdogan say?” We know the game that is played with our country through Greece ‘”.

“It was America that encouraged Saddam Hussein to attack Kuwait. It was again America that brought Ukraine into the war against Russia. But neither Saddam nor Zelensky saw this game. So what was the result?” writes in a Turkish newspaper and puts in place of Saddam Hussein and Volodymyr Zelenski, the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Greece which “does not realize this game or is offered voluntarily”. Revealing that all this fuss is being made to cause panic among the Turkish people and to lose points by the opposition, which according to the latest polls seems to be winning the election, the article immediately goes to accusations against the leader of the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, the leader of the Good Party (Ilef) Ankara, Mansour Yavas; all those who appear to be able to win the election against Erdogan.

The exact same article is reproduced by CNN Türk.

On the other hand, the Milliyet newspaper deals with … Imia. According to the article, retired Beyazit Karatas, a follower in Athens, was allegedly talking to his Greek colleagues about the Imia crisis.

Milliyet writes: “The Greek pilot said that they had received a ‘take-off order’. He asked his commander if he was allowed to use weapons against Turkish planes when necessary. This is not allowed. My question was to find out the reason why he revealed this memory many years ago to Beyazit Pasha, the fact that ‘Greece speaks with a very high profile, where does it get this courage?’. There is a beautiful and realistic reason for art of war: Luck favors the brave! ‘”.

The article then goes on to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the two sides in a possible conflict. Stating that the Turkish Air Force has fully recovered after Erdogan’s pogrom against alleged and non-members of Fethullah Gulen’s network, the paper proceeds with an “X-ray of the Greeks”: “Greek pilots do not have a ‘combat experience’. possible conflict in the Aegean “.

“All of Greece’s missiles and bombs are imported. Turkey, on the other hand, can build its own missiles, bombs and even smart bombs,” the article said.

Of course, a newspaper like Milliyet would not stay there, as it goes ahead and presents the expulsion of Turkey from the F-35 program as something positive, which despite the fact that Greece will procure the specific fighters, Ankara will take advantage of it by making her own home fighter.

For its part, the Sabah newspaper presents K. Mitsotakis’s interview with ERT under the headline “A step behind Mitsotakis”, and refers to the fact that while there have been provocative moves against Turkey from Greece recently, remarkable statements have been made by Greek Prime Minister “.

Petros Kranias