Greece's Ugly Propaganda Attack

University of Seville Map:

So, we thought that the dominant document in Greece's gray propaganda and then propaganda attack against Turkey was only the "Sevilla University Map". After that we started defending against this map, of course this was extremely wrong. Thank God we did not stay on the defensive for long, and we responded to the "Sevilla University Map" with a meaningful leap forward with the "Blue Homeland" and "Istanbul University Map". This opposition was very elegant, different from the white book logic. Turkey's largest University, Istanbul University, with a proper counter-movement, published the "Blue Homeland, Turkey's National Pact on the Seas" with "A Map and a Doctrine Book" to the whole world, a laudable scientific counteraction reflex. (one)

Boundaries of the Blue Homeland in the National Pact:

It should not be forgotten that Turkey's National Pact on the Seas accepts the concept of Blue Homeland as a piece of homeland as important as the pebble that integrates the sea resources surrounding its borders with the concept of homeland. Another concept that should always be emphasized as important as the 'Blue Homeland' is the concept of the "continental shelf", which is the indispensable principle of how countries will benefit from marine resources. It is a prime concept. The "continental shelf concept", formalized with the Geneva Convention on the Law of the Sea, enables riparian states to carry out their activities on a legal basis, in line with the principles of international maritime law such as "equity, proportionality, superiority of geography", and for this it is important.

Another concept that accompanies the continental shelf principle is the "Exclusive Economic Zone" (EEZ). This conceptual framework emerges as a concept aimed at eliminating conflicts that may arise between riparian states. After Turkey's move to Libya in the Eastern Mediterranean, it has taken on an aspect with international validity. Greece was previously about 2 km from Antalya's Kaş district. He made statements that he considered the Meis-Rhodos-Crete islands offshore as his "exclusive economic zone" based on his own island of Meis, located at a distance, but did not declare an official exclusive economic zone. Turkey, on the other hand, signed the memorandum of understanding on the delimitation of maritime jurisdiction areas, which it signed with the UN-supported Government of National Accord in Libya, where the civil war is ongoing, on 19 March 2019, by sending a continental shelf notification to the UN Permanent Representative Feridun Sinirlioğlu to the UN Secretary-General, and adding to the aforementioned memorandum internationally. he knew how to add an aspect. (one)

Turkey-Greece Exploratory Meetings:

Yes, dear readers, exploratory talks, which were held without an agenda after 5 years, in order to deal with the problems in Turkey and Greece, the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, have been started. After the 64th consultation, we started to calculate that the relations such as the fact that the summer season is coming and everything will be a milk port, such as the "NATO Marmara", that is, the flatness of the Sea of ​​​​Marmara. How beautiful it would be for two peoples thirsting for peace on both sides of the water, everything. We hoped that Greece would not cut the branch it boarded with yacht tourism, it would not block the life pipe of the islands close to Turkey, especially Lesbos Chios and Samos. After the pandemic, the Turkish and Greek peoples on both sides of the water would at least live in the summer of 2022 in peace, as they have been since 1986. passes. However, by the way, it is useful to know that although there is a memorandum between Turkey and Greece since 1986 that no military exercises will be held in the Sea of ​​Islands during the summer months, it is Greece that has broken this agreement the most. Although we always know that Greece, as a disloyal state, increases the number of military ships in its effort to show the tourists that the Sea of ​​Islands is the Greek Sea, let's note that we almost try to ignore it.

Can you take a look at the goodwill of the Turkish people? After the "Great Exchange" (Etablis Problem) dated January 30, 1923, we were saying that we would catch a peaceful enthusiasm in the summer of 2022, even in the "rembetikas", which are sad to the tune of pain, due to exclusion by both Turkey and Greece. Peace and tranquility were so missed that, despite everything, even the unjust demands of Greece in Turkey began to be ignored. We were saying that Greece is the spoiled child of Europe, it will settle down, of course. Wasn't everything happening before our eyes? Just a few months ago, due to Turkey's determined and balanced stance in the Ukraine-RF war, did we not witness the tete-a-tete meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, when German Chancellor Scholtz, Israeli President Herzog and Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis almost ran to Turkey? ? The compatibility of the balance policy that Turkey has been carrying out in its region for a long time with the strategy, Turkey's determination in energy security, NATO and Turkey's confidence in Europe as a major European country, and the possibility of contributing to the solution of the Cyprus and Eastern Mediterranean problems through diplomatic channels, are always high. began to be seen as a reflection of being a state in the region.

EastMed:

Israel, the Greek Cypriot Administration and Greece, with the support of the USA and the 'EastMed Pipeline Project', which aims to transport the gas discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean to Europe by bypassing Turkey, suddenly withdrew the support of Washington, that the project collapsed. We watched together that the balances suddenly changed in . It is a fact that the formulas in which Turkey was excluded have always been tried, but a determined stance both on the field and in diplomacy has rendered the policies that Turkey is not included in in vain. The withdrawal of the USA and Israel from behind Greece and the Greek Cypriots caused disappointment in Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration, but it also contributed to the decrease in the tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean. As a natural result of this stance, according to the win-win formula from the Eastern Mediterranean gas, which Turkey proposes as specific to a great state, the way to conduct joint business has suddenly been opened. Shall we ask now? What was the reason for this? It was because when Europe began to tremble, Turkey shone like the sun, with Turkey being the KEY COUNTRY in Europe's energy equation. It was as if the whole world understood that Turkey is the result of its geostrategic location and being the heartland of energy basins. Within a month, President Erdoğan was the only leader who spoke with 37 Presidents, including Russian President Putin and US President Biden. (2)

Being a part of the Ottoman Commonwealth of Nations, Greece has always been the production center of insidious policies, as it is an artificial nation-state with the support of Europe. Now you have to ask, right? Are the theses Mitsotakis voiced in Washington the first to be spoken? Certainly not. Greece, at all times and on all grounds, has made and continues to make the same claims, from India to Japan. In addition, he was not satisfied with this, he had all of these baseless and groundless claims written in EU reports one by one and had decisions taken. In fact, last year, Greek Foreign Minister Densiz Dandias consciously defended these theses in front of the cameras in Ankara in front of the Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu himself. As President Erdogan emphasized; Greece has always been the home and route of terrorist organizations. It is also worth remembering that the Kurdish Provisional Government in exile was formed in Athens during the Turkish National Struggle.

NATO Tiger Meet 2022:

There is no need to go back too far, in NATO's "Tiger Meet - Tiger Meeting" exercise hosted by Greece between 9-20 May 2022, the airspace was determined as 10 miles, and the "non-military" status with the Lausanne and Paris Agreements. 23 islands are also included in the exercise area.

While Mitsotakis was in Washington; The USA and the Greek Navy and Air Forces conducted a joint exercise on the island of İskiri (Skiros) off the coast of İzmir, in the middle of the Aegean, with the subject of "rescuing the island occupied by the enemy army". There is no need for any further questions, the enemy army in this exercise is directly the Turkish Armed Forces. So now you have to ask, right? Why did Greece adopt its provocative stance and start a propaganda attack? First of all, let's say, Kiryakos Mitsotakis from Crete, whose speech was interrupted by applause 37 times in the US Congress, and Greece, who gave his country's GDP to the USA and France on a turnkey basis, and who could hold it after he got this wind behind him. Miçotakis' visit to the Goat Island, which Greece had occupied, contrary to the issue of "Islands, Islets and Rocks with Controversial Sovereignty in the Sea of ​​Islands," and sharing the Greek Flag from there, constituted the last stage of the tension.

With this going, Greece has to become the Ukraine of the near future in the conflict between Turkey and Greece. The biggest reason for this is the USA, the USA's warmongering. The Turkish Navy does not need to do anything, the islands in the Sea of ​​Islands are within the range that can be occupied by the Black Sea fishermen's Turkish trades. We all see where it is going. The USA continues to provoke Greece against Turkey and act as a provocateur, just like Ukraine, which it has kept waiting at NATO's gate for decades, as it was before the Ukraine-RF war. The USA has clearly planned this and put it into practice. With this plan, which he put into practice, Greece disrupts the status of the islands with non-military status, as per the 1923 Lausanne and 1947 Paris agreements, and encourages Turkey to attack. The USA is already trying to increase the tension on the ground of presenting Turkey's response according to the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which is the foundation document of its establishment, as if it were Turkey's attack plan with the tactic of "False Flag". The situation is going to such a state that it encourages to make Turkey's NATO membership controversial, by pitting the two NATO countries against each other in the process of Sweden-Finland's entry into NATO. In short, while the USA's plan to make Greece the new Ukraine continues with all its nakedness, the Greek administration has taken the path of becoming a new Ukraine, which has been tricked by the puppeteer. Is there any possibility of war? Yes, there is, the USA is working with all its might to make this happen.

Proxy Wars and the USA:

Let's put something in bigger letters here, they can make Turkey and Greece go to war, but the fact that the USA, which thoroughly scrutinized Napoleon and Hitler, will not and cannot fight with Russia, has once again come to light with the Ukraine war. The United States is now even confirming Ukraine's territorial surrender to the RF. The second fact is the reality that the USA did not declare war on the Ottoman Empire, which was the warring party even in the First World War. Let's come to our first argument, in no period of history America and Russia have never directly fought each other. They waged regional wars against each other in various parts of the world, made their proxies fight the states under their control, and did not bring their own armies into conflict. Another fact that should not be forgotten is that they shared the world after these wars. (3) It is now obvious that the next countries are Turkey and Greece.

"Reciprocity Principle" is one of the sanctions that I like and appreciate the most in all areas of life. The principle of “Whatever is done to you, do the same”. It's like a kind of "qisas" in Islamic Sharia Law. I think there is no need to explain it at length, this principle is one of the most important and critical laws of the Foreign Ministry. One of the famous professors of Political Sciences, Prof. Dr. It is the famous phrase of Seha L. Meray, “If you are a strong state, you will retaliate with what was done to you!” The issue of reciprocity is a really serious issue, and it does not dilute it in any way. No, my dear, he did not do this on purpose. Someone in the country is intimidated, and his words cannot be overlooked. It cannot be put into any other form. Soldiers have a law that is valid in almost every field in this regard. That you will fight back with whatever weapon the enemy is attacking you with. In other words, it is “tank against tank, cannon against cannon, mortar against mortar, or howitzer against howitzer”. The opposite of this does not even cross the mind, it is against the logic of the soldier. Power is shown in the same field, this is what mythology, legends, metaphysical religious teachings dictate from past to present. In short, this is called “kisas”, it is a sanction based on harming the person who caused the damage in the same manner and amount. So, here's the thing; retaliate, retaliate; is to retaliate. The proverb "An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth" is the name of this meaningful nursery rhyme in our language.

Casus Belli: Cause of War

Yes, dear readers, at the root of the territorial waters problem between Turkey and Greece lies the deterioration of the balance established in the Aegean Sea in favor of Greece over time, with the Lausanne Peace Treaty. With a fait accompli in 1936, Greece increased its territorial seas, which was determined to be 3 miles in Lausanne unilaterally, to 6 nautical miles, and Turkey did not object to this decision due to the positive atmosphere that dominated Turkish-Greek relations at that time. With Turkey's extension of its territorial waters by 6 miles, its gain is almost nothing, increasing from seven percent to 7.57 percent. In other words, even a pinch of honey did not get on his finger. As it is known, Turkey remained silent on this decision until 1964, and in 1964, due to the Cyprus problem, after Greece armed the islands close to the Anatolian coast, it had to increase its territorial waters to 6 nautical miles. However, what needed to be done was to show a reflex against the breach of the "non-military" (demilitarizing) status in the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.

After the 1974 Cyprus Peace Operation, Greece's attempt to increase its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles in order to take a large part of the areas accepted as open sea in the Aegean Sea under its sovereignty, mobilized the Republic of Turkey. He informed the USA in a letter written by then Foreign Minister İhsan Sabri Çağlayangil that he would count the reason (casus belli = cause of war). This issue, which has cooled over time; It came to the fore again, with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), signed in 1982, giving riparian states the right to declare their territorial seas up to 12 nautical miles. This was perceived as an opening for Greece, as Turkey's inability to reach the Sea of ​​Islands, and in the Eastern Mediterranean as imprisoning Turkey in the Gulf of Antalya, and hands were started to be rubbed. For this reason, Greece put into effect the convention in 1995, to which Turkey is not a party, and the Greek Parliament declared on 1 June 1995 that it reserved the right to increase its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles in the Aegean, at a time in line with its own strategy. (4)

Yes, dear readers, after all this, what I want to say is that since the territorial waters in the Sea of ​​Islands are three miles, as stated in the Treaty of Lausanne, the territorial waters should be withdrawn to three miles immediately and the Lausanne conditions must be returned completely. The memorandum of understanding, which has been announced since 1986 in the summer months, aiming not to reach the Sea of ​​Islands, should be deemed null and void. Considering that the knife rests on the bone, necessary actions must be taken, including military action, in order to restore the islands, which had a non-military status pursuant to the 1923 Lausanne and 1947 Paris agreements. However, despite everything, the main thing is to reduce the tension first by making common sense dominate. The United States should immediately give up its agent provocation, both for the sake of NATO and for the war not to spread to the Mediterranean.

Conclusion:

An important rule of international relations is the reality that all governments in Turkey and Greece have agreed that, according to Article 33 of the UN Treaty, "if the negotiations fail, the parties will apply to the International Court of Justice of The Hague". In order for Turkey and Greece to apply to The Hague, they have to prepare a joint arbitration agreement indicating which disputes have been agreed with the Court of Justice. As it is known, the decisions of the International Court of Justice are binding on the member states and no appeal can be made against these decisions.

If the tension can be relieved, the Court of Justice will not only address the issues of the continental shelf and the EEZ, but also the issue arising from the fact that the Greek islands in the Aegean have 6 miles of territorial waters and 10 miles of airspace, the status of islands, islets and reefs of uncertain identity, and the resolution of the Greek islands required in accordance with the Lausanne Agreement. It is essential and necessary for the peace and tranquility of the Sea of ​​Islands to prepare a joint 'arbitration' by turning it into a package on issues such as demilitarization.

Footnotes:

(1)https://www.turksail.com/genel-haberler/16802-tuerkiye-den-dogu-akdeniz-de-libya-hamlesi/erişim Tarihi 05.06.2022/

(2) Cihat Yaycı, Mavi Vatan, “Bir Harita ve Bir Doktrin Kitabı” Türkiye’nin Denizlerdeki Misak-ı Milli’si, DOI :10.26650/B/SS25.2022.01;   https://iupress.

istanbul.edu.tr/tr/book/mavi-vatan/home/Erişim Tarihi 05.06.2022/

(3) Bülent ERANDAÇ, Scholtz, Herzog, Miçotakis Türkiye’ye Neden Geldi? Stratejik Düşünce Enstitüsü, 16 Mart 2022; https://www.sde.org.tr/bulent-erandac/genel/scholtz-herzog-micotakis-turkiyeye-neden-geldi-kose-yazisi-26224/ Erişim Tarihi 05.06.2022/

(4) Mehmet Cem Demirci, Yunanistan'ın karasularını 12 mile çıkarmasıyla Türkiye’ye Ege'de yüzde 10'dan az bir alan kalacak, Görüş, Euronews, 26/08/2020; https://tr.euronews.com/2020/08/26/

yunanistan-12-mil-cikisi-ile-turkiye-nin-sinir-uclarina-dokunuyor-gorus/Erişim Tarihi 05.06.2022/