On Turkey’s pro-government TV channel AHaber, political analysts and national security specialists enthusiastically discussed how the Turkish Air Force could strike Greek islands in the Aegean Sea.
Speaking in front of a map of Turkey and Greece, Mesut Hakkı Caşın, a professor of international law and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s advisor for security and foreign policy, spoke about the Turkish Kaan fighter jet, which is currently under development, and said:
“This [Kaan] plane won’t be spotted by Greek radars. As this plane hits the main targets [Aegean islands] here, the other plane accompanying it, [the UAV Bayraktar] Akıncı, can destroy all the radars [on the islands], leaving the Greeks blind…
“Add to that our other unmanned combat aerial vehicles, Greek squares will be devastated in less than 3 hours…
“If the Greeks enter a war with us, all the weapons in all those islands will be war booty for us.”
Another analyst said: “The Turkish nation has a dream regarding the islands, but the official policy can’t be expressed publicly.”
Another said: “We will not invade the islands. We will use our right to move freely. We will be a member of the European Union. And then the islands will demographically pass to the Turkish people in a generation. In a generation, all the islands will be majority Turkish.”
“Conquest without a war,” he added, “happens like this [through demographic domination].”
The other analyst disagreed: “Those islands were under Ottoman rule for 500 years, but they were 95 percent demographically Greek. Even the Ottoman Empire could not Turkify them. Also, I don’t believe Turkey will ever be a member of the EU. [The conquest of the islands] will happen only through war.”
So, the Turkish government aims to conquer the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea – either militarily or demographically. The goal is the same: the islands’ capture.
Such conversations are frequent in Turkey’s pro-government media. On February 6, Turkish analysts proudly discussed the prospects of Turkey striking Greece with missiles.
On CNN Turk, pro-government analysts said that the Tayfun, the first Turkish-made short-range ballistic missile, could easily hit Greece from Turkey. “If we fire it from Edirne or Izmir, we can hit Athens,” they concluded.
These threats are not new. For at least the past five years, Turkey’s government has threatened to invade and annex the Greek islands in the Aegean.
On the official X (Twitter) account of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), a video was posted on April 22, 2023, claiming some Greek islands and the Western Thrace region of Greece as part of Turkish territory.
The Turkish media also falsely and repeatedly claims that “152 Greek islands and islets in the Aegean belong to Turkey”. These islands, however, historically and legally, belong to Greece, mainly through the 1924 Treaty of Lausanne, the 1932 Turkish-Italian Agreements, and the 1947 Paris Treaty.
Erdogan’s Islamist government apparently aims to annex Greek territory for two main reasons. The first stems from a belief in neo-Ottomanism and the Islamic concept of conquest, or “fetih,” from the Arabic word “fath”. The second reason stems from the government’s proud denial of its past crimes against Christians.
Conquest is part of Islamic jihad (warfare in the service of Islam) which, according to Islamic scriptures, is a communal obligation. As author Dr. Mark Durie explains:
Turkey also denies the sovereignty and Greek identity of the Republic of Cyprus, 36% of which it illegally invaded and has been occupying since 1974. Cyprus had been a demographically Greek island for millennia, and had also been occupied by the Ottomans from 1571 to 1878.
Erdogan, furthermore, has long been referring to Jerusalem, which was under Ottoman occupation from 1516 and 1917, as a Turkish city. “Jerusalem,” he announced in 2020, “is our city.”
Erdogan also announced that Turkey “firmly” backs terror group Hamas, which aims to destroy Israel and exterminate the Jews. Erdogan’s government indeed provides Hamas with military, financial, political, and diplomatic support, and hosts its terrorist leaders, as Qatar does.
“Turkey is a US ally,” a recent report noted, “but should not be a trusted one.”
The US Congress would be well advised to reconsider its decision regarding F-16 sales to Turkey and this alliance altogether.
