Turkey

[aek66]

FREMM confirmed?

Beautiful thing.

an italian FREMM.

very big day for greece. let's not ruin it by playing the usual games...4 FREMMs turn into 2 FREMMs, only 1 out of 4 MEKO frigates get updated and upgraded.....no f-35 purchase. in the past month, greece raised nearly $3 billion in bonds and another $1 billion in t-bills. the money is there..spend it on greece, not siphoned off to swiss bank accounts of this minister and that general. tzoxatzopoulos and papantoniou come to mind.

[Reaper]

[Reaper]

Greece's token female leftist president today with one of the weakest reposts to Turkey I have ever read.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said Greek-Turkish relations are going through a “difficult and dangerous” phase and warned that provocative activities from Ankara “raise barriers” between the peoples.

Pathetic, weak and compared to her vicious and angry statements on the Greek right - insidious..

[Brklyngrk]

So the Oruc left Greek waters and returned to port. Wonder if it had to do with the Pompeo going to Cyprus and issuing a statement that they were concerned about what Turkey was doing. He also did not meet with the Turkish representatives up north (which pissed them off even more). Also apparently in a EU meeting with Turkey, some EU minister tweeted about their interaction with the Turkish FM. He was all over the place (very contradictory), demanding to monopolize all the speaking time. He stated that Turkey doesn't recognize/adhere to the UN law of the Sea but stated that Greece was breaking those laws.They alienated everyone.

[aek66]

Greece's token female leftist president today with one of the weakest reposts to Turkey I have ever read.

Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou said Greek-Turkish relations are going through a “difficult and dangerous” phase and warned that provocative activities from Ankara “raise barriers” between the peoples.

Pathetic, weak and compared to her vicious and angry statements on the Greek right - insidious..

i saw her mini interview with cnn's nic robertson and need to ask cnn this:

it's provocative that a greek president visit a greek island?? in nic's world, in 1939 - the polish president moscicki visiting the polish city of katowice (near gleiwitz) would have been 'provocative' to the nazis?? certainly nic knows the back story and he asks a ridiculous question. cnn has turned to absolute trash.

[aek66]

So the Oruc left Greek waters and returned to port. Wonder if it had to do with the Pompeo going to Cyprus and issuing a statement that they were concerned about what Turkey was doing. He also did not meet with the Turkish representatives up north (which pissed them off even more). Also apparently in a EU meeting with Turkey, some EU minister tweeted about their interaction with the Turkish FM. He was all over the place (very contradictory), demanding to monopolize all the speaking time. He stated that Turkey doesn't recognize/adhere to the UN law of the Sea but stated that Greece was breaking those laws.They alienated everyone.

turkey has blinked and i would love to see mitsotaki invite macron to greece and have a big love-fest between the two nations.

france, the nation that made the EU relevant after germany's private immigration deals and private business deals with russia and turkey. germany allowed all that to interfere with competent leadership of the EU and to the certain detriment of greece and cyprus. france, that stood up for greece's and cyprus' sovereignty at a vulnerable time as germany looked to muddy the waters on turkey's behalf.

if france did as germany, greece and cyprus would be signing away their eez zones at this very minute, as a penalty for having the audacity to be in turkey's way of resource searches and development. france is now bending over backwards to accommodate greece (fighters as gifts, no worries about payment(s)) after letting it be known, an attack upon greece/cyprus is an attack upon france. france broke the german shield protecting and enabling a belligerent turkey - let's remember germany denying greece the opportunity to buy FREMMs 8-9 years ago, under the guise/excuse of money (bk greece), which was really germany helping turkey in advancing a clear turkish naval superiority over greece by 2020.

in 2020, france said no to this. greece can and will purchase the best we have.

[Reaper]

Superb post. ^^

[Don Giovanni]

aek66

File, stop wasting your talents here and get ekathimerini to give you a column. We'll start a petition if need be.

[Reaper]

There is no confused moralising in Aek66's posts. It seems that is a prerequisite to write for them.

[aek66]

thanks..i believe we are all on the same page and what i believe and post, are my personal opinions that have been partly shaped by everyone's posts here. one opinion i've had for many years and expressed it on the other forum was greece reaching out to france - how the u.k. eventually turned it's back on greece during the fyrom dispute. at the time, greece had appealed to the u.k. for 'fairness' and the u.k. only managed to look down at it's own shoes. it was clear the u.k. didn't care about greece's regional grievances. i felt greece could exploit the eternal crack between france and the u.k. and how that crack played out in an E.U. context.

eventually it occurred, but, it was france reaching out to greece. obviously, the french have other reasons too..but, it works nonetheless. thank God for france.

this struggle with turkey and being treated as a leper by other E.U. members will continue. there will be more humiliations, as fellow E.U. co-members will look the other way or actually try to justify or reward turkish belligerence towards greece and/or cyprus. we are all on the same page in that greece's behavior during the fyrom dispute forged some of the mentalities of fellow E.U. nations and especially turkey. greece is a pushover..all moaning and wailing. standing up to turkey at this time was crucial, strengthening the military at this time is also vital.

hopefully, mitsotaki was/is taking notes (spain, italy, malta, germany) and maybe one day soon...he can compare notes with macron and promise unconditional greek backing for french E.U. and NATO initiatives. i'd also like to thank austria for it's support (more so with the illegals). the austrians have less than 20 modern fighters...the benefits of living in a better neighborhood. turkey also managed to bully bulgaria and albania during this crisis. i don't really blame them, those nations also saw greece shy away from and eventually wither against fyrom.

this is a different greece now. i believe everyone has taken note.

[Reaper]

Sadly, concerning the UK, the leadership was deeply anti Greek.. Cameron himself before becoming PM..

[Don Giovanni]

I didn't think much of Macron at first. Who the hell takes the hand of a married woman almost 30 years their senior? But that's the man for you, once he sets his mind to something, he does it.

[Reaper]

Well lets not go crazy, it was a shrewd piece if business on his behalf to get involved but either way, massively beneficial to Greece in damaging the EU Axis powers.

I want Greece to get properly into bed with Israel too.

[Don Giovanni]

I may not go so far as to suggest the UK leadership is anti-Greek per se. At least, not in the way they hate the IRA and Putin's Russia. Since the loss of her empire, the UK has become rudderless and directionless, which is why now Scotland looks set for independence sometime in the not so distant future.

As for Cameron, he seemed naive and very careless in openly expressing those views, but we should acknowledge too that Greece has much herself to blame for inviting these views and not having done enough to take ownership over her own backyard (an argument aek66 has done well to raise).

No serious politician would have aired Cameron's opinion, maybe in private but never so publicly. Then again this was the man who had invited the EU referendum--much to his own detriment and political demise. It seems he never changed much and only grew worse in his ignorance on issues affecting the British public, never mind us Greeks and those Slavic misnomers to the north.

More than anything, Europe (particularly in the north) and across the Atlantic, don't want Russia to become resurgent by regaining footholds in the Balkans and Baltics. They want to contain Russia, a move which holds some validity but not to the extent they have done. No one can honestly say encouraging the war in Syria was a good move or that what has happened in Ukraine could not have been avoided. This drives a lot of what we see as the anti-Greek geopolitical games played by our so-called allies. This is a big reason why the Turks are often appeased, because they serve as a bulwark against the Russians, whom they fear more than the Turks, and the Turks serve as a bridge/roadblock to the Middle East.

[Reaper]

I dunno, Germany is bed with Russia over many issues. Nord Stream 2 the defining example.