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What’s yours is ours: Turkey’s gunboat diplomacy in Cyprus

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Turkey’s gunboat diplomacy

Turkey’s gunboat diplomacy

‘What we stole from you is ours and what we haven’t stolen from you, you must share.’ 

This is in effect Turkey’s position with regard to the hydrocarbon energy resources of the Republic of Cyprus, an independent member state of the Commonwealth, Council of Europe and European Union. 

Having ethno-religiously cleansed more than 170,000 Greeks and Christians from 36 per cent of the territory (and 57 per cent of the coastline) of the Republic of Cyprus and having arbitrarily appropriated the homes and properties of the indigenous people it forcibly displaced, the Turkish government is now brazenly attempting to deny this sovereign state access to its own energy resources. This is nothing other than neo-imperialism from the modern incarnation of the Ottoman Caliphate and Empire, the imperial ruler of the Island of Cyprus from 1571 until 1878.

On 10 February, Turkey’s belligerence was shamelessly demonstrated by its harassment of the drilling vessel Saipem 12000 which belongs to Italian oil giant ENI. The Italian vessel was blocked from entering a location within block 3 of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone by Turkish warships. A stand-off continues.

Turkey’s hypocrisy knows no bounds.

On the one hand, Turkey asserts that its illegal subordinate entity in the Turkish-occupied zone is an ‘independent state’. Yet on the other hand, Turkey lays claim to the energy reserves in the area of the Republic of Cyprus to the south that Turkey does not occupy. At the same time, Turkey refuses to recognise the Republic of Cyprus.

In a similarly hypocritical vein, Turkey has purported to invoke international law while remaining one of a minority of states which have never become state parties of the UN Law of the Sea Convention of 1982; the others in the same boat as Turkey include North Korea.

Ankara’s cynical contention that the resources of the Republic of Cyprus should be ‘shared’ by ‘the two communities’ exposes its mendacity. It also exposes Ankara’s segregationism and neo-imperial desire to control Cyprus as a territory and to exploit its people and resources.

Since its two invasions of the Republic of Cyprus launched in 1974, Turkey showed the world its unique interpretation of the concept of ‘sharing’. To begin with, Turkey purported to carve Cyprus into two, including an ethno-religiously cleansed Turkish-occupied northern zone. By means of an illegal puppet regime owing its loyalty to Ankara, Turkey then illegally usurped the properties belonging to forcibly displaced persons. These properties were then illegally distributed to Turkish citizens who had been illegally imported to illegally colonise the illegally occupied north.

Ankara’s claim that it is acting to secure a ‘share’ of Cyprus’ energy resources for the Turkish Community is as bogus as its absurd claim that it invaded and occupied part of Cyprus for the sake of ‘peace’.

In truth, Turkey invaded the Republic of Cyprus with the pre-planned aim of transforming its north into a de facto province of Turkey.

The increasingly unhinged President Erdogan has reacted with his usual brand of neo-imperial outbursts mixed with naked threats. In his view: “Those who think that we’ve erased from our hearts the lands from which we withdrew in tears a hundred years ago are wrong.” With regard to companies commissioned by the Cyprus government to explore the island’s energy reserves, President Erdogan has claimed: “Their swagger lasts only until they come across with our army, ships and planes… our rights in the Aegean and Cyprus are the same”. What President Erdogan really means is ‘might is right’.

We welcome statements by EU officials such European Parliament President Tajani who called on Turkey to respect international law and refrain from engaging in dangerous provocations in what he called “Cyprus’ territorial waters”. However, the response from the United Nations, as ever, was found wanting. To quote one of its recent statements: “The [UN] Secretary-General regrets that tensions over hydrocarbons exploration has escalated once again, and emphasizes that all concerned parties should do their utmost to defuse tensions.” The UN Secretary-General did not explain that, under his nose, only one party is raising tensions. That party is Turkey.

Perhaps President Erdogan should come to terms with the fact that the days of the Ottoman Caliphate and Empire are long gone. He should refrain from destabilising the eastern Mediterranean region and threatening a member state of the EU. He should accept that the resources of the Republic of Cyprus belong to it as an independent sovereign state. He should also ensure that Turkey becomes a state party to the UN Law of the Sea Convention and if Turkey has any dispute with the Republic of Cyprus this should be addressed by the dispute resolution mechanisms built into the Convention.

Turkey’s policies of partition, segregation, colonisation and exploitation do not serve the interests of any citizen of the Republic of Cyprus or of the European Union of which it forms part. It is high time that the Republic of Cyprus, its properties and its resources were left to it and, by extension, to its citizens of all ethnic, religious or other backgrounds.

In the meantime, we call upon the UN, the EU and all sovereign states to do what they have hitherto failed to do in relation to the bully of the eastern Mediterranean known as Turkey: they should impose sanctions and other restrictive measures. 

Lobby for Cyprus is a non-party-political human rights organisation that campaigns for a Cyprus free from Turkish occupation and a unitary Cypriot state without segregation along ethnic and religious lines.

Source: https://lobbyforcyprus.wordpress.com/2018/02/22/cyprus-eez/

Turkey’s violence-tinged foreign policy

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Turkey’s violence-tinged foreign policy

Turkey’s violence-tinged foreign policy

By Uzay Bulut,

ANALYSIS/OPINION:

Speaking recently about his military’s ongoing invasion of the Kurdish-ruled Afrin region in northern Syria, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan taught much of the world a rather bizarre term.

“It is clear that those who say ‘we will respond aggressively if you hit us’ have never experienced an Ottoman slap.”

He was referring to Lt. Gen. Paul E. Funk, commander of the U.S.-led coalition against ISIS.

The pro-government news website Hur Haber describes an “Ottoman slap” as “a type of strike used by Ottoman soldiers during unarmed defense or attack. It could be done with both sides of the hand and could muddle, strike unconscious or even kill the one on its receiving end. Only specialized persons could give this slap and it could only be learned after having undergone years-long training.”

The Ottoman slap has also come to mean a violent, national action by Turks to someone they consider their enemy. The slap is so powerful and effective it provides Turks with absolute victory and the enemy with utter defeat and shame.

The term is commonly used in Turkey. From 2013 to 2014, the government-funded TRT channel aired a TV series titled “The Ottoman Slap,” glorifying the Turkish invasion of the Christian Byzantine Empire in the 1300s.

Mr. Erdogan also threatened the Republic of Cyprus and eastern Mediterranean companies that are exploring for energy resources, forbidding them to “engage in activities that exceed their limits and powers” and warning them to avoid “trusting the Greek side in Cyprus,” adding that Cyprus’ courage will only last “until they see our army, our ships and our planes.”

The Ottoman Empire’s occupation of vast lands and Islam’s flag of conquest still influence Turkey’s foreign policy, including its invasions and ethnic cleansings. Cyprus was occupied by the Ottoman Empire from 1571 to 1878. And the northern part of the island has been illegally occupied by Turkey since 1974.

Even today, Turkey continues to target the Republic of Cyprus. Most recently, in a string of aggressions in Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkish warships blocked a rig belonging to the Italian energy firm ENI from reaching Cypriot waters to start exploring for gas.

The American Hellenic Institute has condemned Turkish aggression in the eastern Mediterranean, saying, in part: “The Republic of Cyprus has the sovereign right under international law to explore and exploit its natural resources within its exclusive economic zone. The United States has stated repeatedly it supports Cyprus’ sovereign right to explore energy in its offshore areas.”

Mr. Erdogan seems to disagree. “Whatever Afrin is to us, our rights in the Aegean and Cyprus are the same. Do not ever think that the natural gas exploration in the waters of Cyprus and the opportunistic attempts in the Aegean Sea drop off from our radar,” he said, and then threatened Cyprus with yet another military invasion:

“Just as we disrupt the plots [in the region] through Operation Euphrates Shield [in Syria] and Operation Olive Branch [in Syria], and soon in Manbij and other regions, we can and we will disrupt the plots of those who engage in miscalculations on our southern border. Our warships and air force are keeping an eye on the area in order to intervene in any way whenever required.”

Since 1974, Turkey has refused to comply with U.N. Security Council resolutions demanding the immediate withdrawal of its troops from Cypriot soil. The global inaction in response to Turkish aggression encourages Mr. Erdogan, the president of a so-called “ally” of the West, to threaten Cyprus with yet another military assault.

Mr. Erdogan dreams of giving Americans the Ottoman slap, for he is a proud Ottomanist. The pro-government news website A Haber posted a photo of Erdogan giving U.S. President Donald Trump the Ottoman slap.

“Those who think that we’ve erased from our hearts the lands from which we withdrew in tears a hundred years ago are wrong,” he declared, referring to the Ottoman-occupied lands that Turks lost with the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire in 1922.

There is nothing shocking in Mr. Erdogan’s words: He is a consistently honest jihadist who speaks and acts according to his beliefs. What enables him get away with his intimidating rhetoric and ongoing hostility is the apparent weakness and confusion of the West in the face of violent Turkish supremacism.

• Uzay Bulut is a journalist and political analyst from Turkey and a fellow with the news and public policy group Haym Salomon Center.

Report Syrian Government Forces Enter Afrin – YPG Representative

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YPG representative in Afrin Brusk Haseke told Sputnik that the Syrian government forces have entered Afrin besieged by the Turkish military. The Syrian armed forces, however, yet to confirm this information.

“Yes, this is true. Today the Syrian government army entered Afrin in order to defend the city from the Turkish Armed Forces and the Free Syrian Army jointly with the Kurdish forces of the YPG. The government forces have come to help the people of Afrin. We cannot report on the number of soldiers that entered Afrin. This is military information.”

At the same time, the Syrian state TV has shown a convoy, what it says are pro-government forces, entering Afrin.

The troops, wearing camouflage fatigues and waving weapons and Syrian flags from their vehicles are seen on the screen, Reuters said.

Meanwhile, the Syrian TV reports of the shelling of the Syrian government forces, which had entered Afrin by the Turkish military.

However, no official confirmation to this has followed from both — the Syrian and the Turkish sides.

Turkey’s Warning Against Entering Afrin

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier in the day that Turkish army would encircle Afrin to speed up its operation, adding that possible deployment of Syrian government forces into the city had been “halted through our communications.”

The day before, a senior Kurdish official said that Syrian Kurdish forces and the country’s government had agreed on the deployment of Syrian army troops along border positions in the Afrin region to curb the Turkish campaign.

Later on, Syrian state television channel Ikhbariya reported that pro-Syrian government forces would enter Syria’s Afrin area “within hours.”

However, this information has been refuted by Brusk Haseke, who had called them false and fake news in his interview to Sputnik, saying that the Syrian government forces would not enter Afrin.

Commenting on reports, Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said that if Syrian armed forces entered Afrin to support Kurdish militants, this would lead to a catastrophe, giving a green light to split the country.

International Reaction

Reacting to the recent developments in Syria, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned that “worse was ahead of us” if nothing is done in the war-torn country.

“We’re heading toward a humanitarian cataclysm” in Syria if nothing is done, Le Drian told French lawmakers.

As the minister stated, he would travel to Russia and Iran in the next few days to discuss the war raging in Syria.

Turkey Threatens to Invade Greece

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan recently said: “We warn those who have crossed the line in the Aegean and Cyprus… Their courage persists only until they see our army, our ships and our planes.” (Photo by Elif Sogut/Getty Images)

by Uzay Bulut,

  • Turkey’s ruling party, and even much of the opposition, seem intent on, if not obsessed with, invading and conquering these Greek islands, on the grounds that they are actually Turkish territory.
  • “The things we have done so far [pale in comparison to the] even greater attempts and attacks [we are planning for] the coming days, inshallah [Allah willing].” – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, February 12, 2018.
  • The head of the state-funded Directorate of Religious Affairs, the Diyanet, has openly described Turkey’s recent military invasion of Afrin as “jihad.” This designation makes sense when one considers that Muslim Turks owe their demographic majority in Asia Minor to centuries of Turkish persecution and discrimination against the Christian, Yazidi and Jewish inhabitants of the area.

In an incident that took place less than two weeks after the Greek Defense Ministry announced that Turkey had violated Greek airspace 138 times in a single day, a Turkish coast guard patrol boat on February 13 rammed a Greek coast guard vessel off the shore of Imia, one of many Greek islands over which Turkey claims sovereignty.

Most of the areas within modern Greece’s current borders were under the occupation of the Ottoman Empire from the mid-15th century until the Greek War of Independence in 1821 and the establishment of the modern Greek state in 1832. The islands, however, like the rest of Greece, are legally and historically Greek, as their names indicate.

Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), however, and even much of the opposition seem intent on, if not obsessed with, invading and conquering these Greek islands, on the grounds that they are actually Turkish territory.

In December, for instance, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the main Turkish opposition CHP party, stated that when he wins the election in 2019, he will “invade and take over 18 Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, just as former Turkish PM Bulent Ecevit invaded Cyprus in 1974.” He said that there is “no document” proving that those islands belong to Greece.

Meral Akşener, the head of the newly established opposition “Good Party,” has also called for an invasion and conquest of the islands. “What is required must be done,” she tweeted on January 13.

The most garish muscle-flexing has come from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, of course, who seems emboldened by his military invasion of the Afrin region in northern Syria having gone virtually unchallenged.

“We warn those who have crossed the line in the Aegean and Cyprus,” Erdoğan declared, continuing:

“Their courage persists only until they see our army, our ships and our planes… Whatever Afrin is to us, our rights in the Aegean and Cyprus are the same. Do not ever think that the natural gas exploration in the waters of Cyprus and the opportunistic attempts in the Aegean Sea drop off our radar.

“Just as we disrupt the plots [in the region] through Operation Euphrates Shield and Operation Olive Branch [on Syria], and soon in Manbij and other regions, we can and we will disrupt the plots of those who engage in miscalculations on our southern border… Our warships and air forces are keeping an eye on the area closely to intervene in every way when required.”

Referring to the days of the Ottoman Empire, Erdoğan went on:

“Those who think that we have erased from our hearts the lands from which we withdrew in tears a hundred years ago are wrong.

“We say at every opportunity we have that Syria, Iraq and other places in the geography [map] in our hearts are no different from our own homeland. We are struggling so that a foreign flag will not be waved anywhere where adhan [Islamic call to prayer in mosques] is recited.

“The things we have done so far [pale in comparison to the] even greater attempts and attacks [we are planning for] the coming days, inshallah [Allah willing].”

The Ottoman dynasty and empire was established by a nomadic Turkmen chief sometime around the year 1300. During the more than 600 years of the Ottoman period, the Ottoman Turks, who also represented the Islamic Caliphate, regularly launched wars of jihad, invading and occupying lands across five continents.

Neo-Ottomanists in Turkey still proudly embrace the concept of jihad (Islamic holy war) against the kafirs (infidels). The head of the state-funded Directorate of Religious Affairs, the Diyanet, has openly described Turkey’s recent military invasion of Afrin as “jihad.”

This designation makes sense when one considers that Muslim Turks owe their demographic majority in Asia Minor to centuries of Turkish Muslim persecution and discrimination against the Christian, Yazidi and Jewish inhabitants of the area. In the 11th century, Turkic jihadists from Central Asia invaded and conquered the Greek-speaking, Christian Byzantine Empire, paving the way for the gradual Turkification and Islamization of the region through methods such as murder, kidnapping, rape and forced conversions.

The greatest 20th century Turkish assault against Christians took place in the 1914-1923 genocide of Greeks, Armenians and Assyrians (Syriacs/Chaldeans) in Ottoman Turkey. This did not prevent Turkey, which continues to deny the genocide, from becoming a member of NATO in 1952. The assault also did not stop Turkey, three years after joining NATO, from committing a savage anti-Greek pogrom in Istanbul or from forcibly expelling the remaining Greeks from Turkey in 1964.

It is precisely because the Turks have never been held accountable for their criminal actions and aggression that they continue to threaten the security and sovereignty of their neighbors. It is high time for the West wake up and take Ankara to task.

Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist born and raised in Turkey. She is presently based in Washington D.C.

Turkey biggest obstacle to finishing the war against the Islamic State

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Turkey biggest obstacle

Turkey biggest obstacle

By David Ignatius Opinion writer

How bizarre that the biggest obstacle to finishing the war against the Islamic State and beginning the stabilization of Syria is America’s supposed friend and NATO ally Turkey.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made the latest attempt to mollify an angry Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a three-hour meeting in Ankara Thursday. But this may be mission impossible: Granting Turkey’s demands would make Syria more unstable and prolong the threat of radical Islamist terrorism there.

The U.S. goal is “getting to yes” with Erdogan, says a senior administration official. To that end, the United States has crafted a tentative package meant to appease the Turks by offering them a buffer zone in the Kurdish enclave of Afrin, joint Turkish-American patrols of the Manbij region where Erdogan has threatened an “Ottoman slap” if U.S. troops don’t leave and gradual dilution of U.S. ties with a Kurdish-led militia that Erdogan despises.

To coax agreement, U.S. emissaries have prepared what amounts to a Venn diagram, showing how closely American and Turkish interests overlap in the region — except for on the Kurdish issue. That’s like saying a couple have an interest in staying married, except for the fact that one accuses the other of an affair. Certainly, American and Turkish interests should converge; but if so, why does Turkey imprison American citizens, accuse Washington of fomenting a coup and violate U.S. sanctions against Iran?

Nobody wants a violent rupture with Turkey. But seven years into the catastrophic Syrian war, observers need to admit some ground truths: The Turks allowed thousands of foreign radical Islamists to flow into Syria and create bases from which they threatened Europe and the United States; these terrorists would still be in their capital of Raqqa, planning attacks, if the United States hadn’t partnered with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces militia that Turkey hates so much.

Meeting Turkish demands would mean abandoning the SDF, which did the fighting and dying against the Islamic State. Even if the United States were ready to commit that amoral act in the name of realpolitik, the result would be more chaos in Syria, not less. The Turks simply don’t have enough disciplined, reliable military power to stabilize the areas the SDF now controls. The United States would create a free-for-all that would make Lebanon look tidy by comparison.

Here’s a catalogue of the craziness in the Syrian battlespace over the past month: A former al-Qaeda affiliate has shot down a Russian jet, using a Chinese-made missile; Kurdish forces have shot down a Turkish helicopter, using an Iranian-made missile; Iran has flown a drone into Israel, across Russian-monitored Syrian airspace; Israel has bombed 12 sitesacross Syria in retaliation; and the U.S. response to a Russian-backed sneak attack on oil-and-gas fields near Deir al-Zour killed perhaps scores of Russian mercenaries, overflowing the local morgue.

Syria is now riven by “converging forces with diverging interests,” warns a senior Pentagon official. Staffan de Mistura, the U.N. special envoy, said Wednesday that it is as “violent, worrying and dangerous” a moment as any since he took the job four years ago.

What’s the answer to this toxic mix? Not empowering Turkey’s deeper meddling, surely. The path out is a steady, patient advance of the faltering Geneva negotiations to extend the power and authority of a reformed Syrian state and military. For the United States, that means biting the bullet and working with Russia and the Syrian regime — two untrustworthy but essential partners.

Russia actually took a step forward this month by drafting a new Syrian constitution that would grant limited autonomy for Kurdish regions in a newly decentralized Syrian state. The Russian draft would reconcile Kurdish and Arab demands, and some U.S. officials see it as a basis for serious talks. But other administration officials view Russia as a wrecker that uses “bait and switch” tactics to advance its interests and Iran’s, at the expense of the United States and its allies. What President Trump favors is anybody’s guess.

Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/how-to-tackle-the-biggest-obstacle-to-finishing-the-war-against-the-islamic-state/2018/02/15/7891cfde-129b-11e8-9065-e55346f6de81_story.html?utm_term=.3909d4d52b7c

Turkey hits Kurds with toxic gas, 6 civilians injured – reports

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Turkey hits Kurds with toxic gas

Turkey hits Kurds with toxic gas

Turkish forces engaged in Operation Olive Branch against Kurdish militias in the northwest of Syria have used gas, RT reported citing Syrian state media SANA. At least six civilians have been hospitalized.

“Six people have been admitted with symptoms of suffocation as a result of the use of projectiles with poisonous gas by the Turkish regime in the town of Aranda,” SANA quotes the hospital’s director, Joan Mohammed. Medics are working to determine the type of gas used, Mohammed said.

Local journalist Mohammed Hassan tweeted pictures of patients, who were purported to be victims of the attack, wearing breathing masks.

The hospital director said four of the victims were stable and two were in critical condition.

YPG spokesman Birusk Hasaka confirmed to Reuters that Kurds came under what appears to be a chemical attack during Turkey’s offensive on a village, saying that the symptoms of the six people affected are consistent with exposure to a gas poisoning.

Turkey launched Operation Olive Branch on January 20 with a stated goal of securing its borders against Kurdish militia seen as a terrorist organization by Turkey.

Turkey’s 90,000 mosques Official Friday Sermon Glorifies ‘Armed Jihad’

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Glorifies ‘Armed Jihad’

Glorifies ‘Armed Jihad’

A sermon sent to Turkey’s 90,000 mosques for Friday prayers by Turkish state religious authorities took as its theme the importance of jihad. “Engaging in armed struggle for belief, existence, nation, survival and freedom is the highest level of jihad,” the sermon said, according to a report by online news outlets Ahval.

“The struggle we gave only yesterday in the east, west, north and south to protect this glorious nation is the most lively witness to jihad. Gallipoli, where we triumphed with Allah’s help, is the name of an existential epic, belief, bravery and determination,” said the sermon, sent to be read out at each of Turkey’s mosques by the state Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet).

Jihad began with the self, and winning this inner struggle would allow for victory in external struggles as well, it said. “Jihad is learning Allah’s religion from the best sources and living it in the best possible way,” it said. “And if the believer can succeed in the jihad with their own flesh, then they can have victory in the jihad against the enemies of Islam.”

However, this external jihad should not be used as an excuse to kill innocents, the sermon said. “Jihad is carried out in order to extinguish all forms of evil that have distorted mankind away from the reason for its creation,” it said. “Whoever it is carried out against and for whatever reason, attacks on innocent people can never be squared with the noble spirit and ideals of jihad in Islam.”

The mighty power The United State capitulate to Erdogan Ottoman Slap

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Rex Tillerson

Turkey,FM Çavuşoğlu US have ‘come to terms’ to normalize ties, Manbij is priority:

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu have agreed that Washington and Ankara will “no longer act alone” in Syria. The US still urged Turkey to “show restraint” in Afrin.

After weeks of tensions between the US and Turkey, with the two NATO powers perilously close to fighting on opposite sides of the conflict in northern Syria, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to try to calm the mood.

Washington and Ankara are at odds over Turkey’s offensive in the northwestern Syria region of Afrin which seeks to drive the Kurdish YPG from the area. The YPG had been Washington’s most effective Syrian ally in the fight against the militant “Islamic State” (IS) group.

‘Normalizing’ relations

“We are not going to act alone any longer, not the US doing one thing, Turkey doing another,” Tillerson said at a joint press conference in Ankara. “We will work together … we have good mechanisms on how we can achieve this, there is a lot of work to be done,” he said.

Tillerson also said that Syria and the US had “precisely the same” objectives for the conflict in Syria, namely defeating IS, stabilizing the wartorn country, and creating a unified and democratic nation. Both the US and Turkey oppose Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

“We are agreed on normalizing relations again,” Cavusoglu said at the press conference, adding that Washington-Ankara ties were at a “critical phase.”

Breaking News:Terrorist State of Turkey handed down aggravated life sentences to six prominent journalists

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aggravated life sentences

aggravated life sentences

An Istanbul court on Feb. 16 handed down aggravated life sentences to six defendants, including prominent journalists Nazlı Ilıcak, Ahmet Altan and Mehmet Altan, over “violating the Turkish constitution” in a case against the alleged “media wing” of the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ).

Is Greece about to LOSE IT with Turkey? Tsipras issues rare WAR WARNING as tensions mount

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GREECE issued a warning to Turkey today saying it would NOT tolerate any challenge to its territorial integrity.

By CHARLIE BUCKLE

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said today Greece would not tolerate any move from Turkey after Turkish and Greek coastguard vessels collided close to disputed islets in the Aegean Sea.

He said: “Our message, now, tomorrow and always, is clear… Greece will not allow, accept or tolerate any challenge to its territorial integrity and its sovereign rights.”

“Greece is not a country which plays games,” Tsipras told an audience at the country’s shipping ministry.

The collision involving the two vessels occurred on Monday evening off Imia, known as Kardak in Turkish. Each side blamed the other for the incident.

Turkey and Greece, NATO allies, have been at odds over a host of issues from ethnically split Cyprus to sovereignty over airspace and overflights.

They came to the brink of war in 1996 in a sovereignty dispute over the islets, but tensions have eased since.

Noting that Greece’s eastern border is also that of the European Union, Tsipras said: “Challenges and aggressive rhetoric against the sovereign rights of an EU member state are against the EU in its entirety.”

Tensions between the two countries have been on the rise since a Greek court blocked the extradition of eight Turkish soldiers whom Ankara accuses of involvement in a failed coup against President Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.

Yesterday Turkish advisor to Erdogan said Greece was “like a fly picking a fight with a giant.”

The chief advisor told Turkey’s TRT channel that he is “in no doubt” that the US has a plan to make Greece attack Turkey while its military is engaged in Syria.

Turkey’s response, Yigit Bulut said, will be tough, adding that Greece is no match for Turkey’s might. It would be like a “fly picking a fight with a giant,” he said and warned that terrible consequences would follow for Greece.

Bulut made similar comments earlier in the month referring to Imia over which Greece and Turkey came close to war in 1996. “We will break the arms and legs of any officers, of the prime minister or of any minister who dares to step onto Imia in the Aegean,” Bulut said.

Meanwhile Turkey’s defence minister said today he had told his U.S. counterpart, Jim Mattis, that the Syrian Kurdish YPG should be removed from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the militia that Washington is backing in the fight against Islamic State.

Nurettin Canikli, in a briefing to reporters in Brussels after meeting with the U.S. Defence Secretary, also said he disputed Mattis’s characterisation of the SDF as dominated by Arabs, saying the militia was completely controlled by the YPG.