Ok so sorry to bump up a 2 year old thread, but it's still an ongoing crisis in the region and I don't think we need new threads for every bit of news
that comes out so here's an update on this years events..
In March during the COVID-19 Pandemic when it was a big unknown to most people in the world and everyone was crapping their pants, the Turkish
government decided to weaponize illegal immigrants (most of whom were jihadists and fighting age males mind you..), and send tens of thousands of them
to the Greek border in Thrace. The Greek government responded very quickly however, with the police and border guards shutting the border down and
preventing illegal entries mostly. A few got through, but they were quickly rounded up and sent back across. Then the army came and reinforced the
border. For many days and nights these "immigrants" attacked the Greek border with various weapons provided to them by the Turkish police and
military, and in many cases the Turkish police and military actively attacked the Greek border as well, firing tear gas at Greek police and soldiers,
and in some cases it was reported live ammunition was fired across the border by the Turks.
The thing to keep in mind here is that technically, Turkey is an ally of Greece through NATO. Very interesting behaviour from an allied country.
The fake news from Turkey started flowing, trying to accuse Greek police/soldiers of beating up illegal immigrants, and in one case they claimed that
Greek police shot and killed an illegal immigrant. All of which quickly fell apart, as videos emerged of the illegal immigrants in Turkey it self
stating what was going on.
Initially they were all too happy to take part in this attempted proxy invasion and attack. But when they realized Greece wasn't playing around
anymore and there was no way across the border into the EU, they changed their minds, that's when Turkish police/soldiers began beating them up, and
there was even videos of it happening.
Fearing a change in tactics and a flood of immigrants to the islands, the majority of the Greek navy and coast guard was deployed. Literally cutting
Turkey off from the Aegean Sea, or better put, from the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. There was essentially as they call it a wall of steel keeping
the invaders at bay.
Assistance arrived from several countries, not in huge numbers, more symbolic, but the message was clear. At least some Europeans will stand together
and defend Europe. Greek forces on the border (which is also the EU border) were joined by Austrian and Polish forces among others.
The Turkish air force tried to enter the mix and intimidate the Greek forces on the ground, and a Turkish UAV ended up being jammed and brought down.
The Greek Air Force did several fly overs of the border positions in response, quite a few low level fly bys too.
Erdogan thus shortly after backed down.
We move forward to the present time.
Turkey decided it would sign an MOU with one of the Libyan governments (there's two at the moment, fighting a civil war). The MOU was for maritime
boundaries between Libya and Turkey. The problem, it ignored international law and quite a few inhabited Greek islands. This agreement is not
recognized by the UN. It later emerged from the GNA government that Turkey blackmailed and pressured them to sign it.
The EU has an operation to stop illegal weapons shipments to Libya in violation of UN resolutions. Operation Irini.
A Turkish frigate escorting a Turkish freighter threatened a French frigate, it's targetting radar locked on to the French frigate. France was and
still is pissed off about that. Again, very interesting behaviour from a NATO ally towards another NATO ally.
Later Turkey decided it would search for oil/gas in the East Med, in Greek waters.
Greece deployed it's navy. Turkey issued illegal NAVTEX's. The relevant station is in Crete at Irakleio, where they have to be issued from, but Turkey
issues them through it's own stations. Greece issued it's own NAVTEX, which under Intl. Law cancelled out the illegal Turkish one. This happened
several times over the last few months.
Each time the Greek navy was deployed for exercises. The last few times the Greek navy was deployed, they held live fire exercises instead of the
usual.
The Turks declared any ship that comes within 6nm of their survey ship the Oruc Reis, will be attacked by their frigates escorting it. So a Greek
frigate entered the zone, and a Turkish frigate decided it would try and pull off some fancy moves, but what ended up happening was the Turkish
frigate positioned it self for a ramming, and that's what happened. Just so happened to be the flag ship of the Turkish navy that got rammed.
Turkish subs were detected within the Aegean in Greek waters. The Greek navy blasted them with relentless sonar or whatever until they surrendered,
and they did. They were trapped and had nowhere to go. It was either start shooting and hope for the best or surrender and piss off home where they'll
cop a beating from their Turkish Mullahs.
In response to most of this nonsense, Greece has been busy on the diplomatic front. It has signed an EEZ agreement with Italy and Egypt, and one is in
the works (already done, just a matter of timing to announce it) with Cyprus.
Libya too has now decided it wants to play by International Laws with Greece and Malta.
The EU however has largely been toothless, and spineless. Except for France, and a bit of a show of support from the Austrians and Polish.
The fake news is still flowing from Turkey.
Turkey has sought throughout this to try and intimidate and bully its way to get what it wants. While Greece, despite ten years of economic hardship
and now a pandemic, has stood firm.
Turkey will ratchet things up with some overblown drama of its own making, then back down on that drama (while still maintaining its other illegal and
provocative behaviour) and say that it's ready for talks now.
The Greek position has been that no negotiations will take place until all illegal Turkish actions and provocations stop. That means all their ships
leave Greek territorial, continental, and EEZ waters.
It published a map it calls "blue homeland", Erdogan even gave press briefings with it behind him. Basically a map that shows half the Aegean and
more, being part of Turkey. Problem is, the Aegean Islands right up to Turkey are Greek, many inhabited. What sort of an allied country claims
territory and acts hostile to another ally?
An interesting all be it subtle development has been that Pompeo has visited Cyprus and Greece, but has not followed either visit up with the usual
visit to the other side. The arms embargo on Cyprus has also been lifted, and American forces have been or will be training with Cypriot forces.
Another interesting but subtle tidbit, is that Pompeo tweeted a short video/map which showed a border between the western coast of Turkey and the rest
of Turkey. Wonder what it means. I doubt it was accidental. Wonder what it means, are they trying to tell Turkey pull your head in or we will
balkanize you?
Meanwhile the Turkish economy continues to sink while the TCB runs out of foreign currency reserves, and Moodys just declared Turkey is headed
straight for an economic collapse.
But its ok, the sultan has his half a billion dollar palace with gold plated taps and toilets and a bunch of losers playing dress up. His sheep (the
majority in Turkey) don't care.
edit on 25-9-2020 by mortex because: (no reason given)