Deteriorating Greek-Turkish Relations Could Cloud NATO Summit

Fractures forming in the eastern flank of the NATO military alliance are threatening the unity of the bloc ahead of a much anticipated summit in Spain later this month. The root of the problem appears to be the member farthest from the North Atlantic: Turkey. Recent provocative behavior sanctioned by the Turkish president, Tayyip Erdogan, is widely perceived as deliberately antagonizing a fellow alliance member, Greece, leading to growing impatience with what some see as NATO’s intolerably soft stance on Ankara. Such sentiment prompted a former Greek foreign minister, Petros Molyviatis, to take his beef directly to NATO’s boss. In a open letter to Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg published in the Greek daily Kathimerini today, Mr. Molyviatis characterized Mr. Stoltenberg’s statements about the crisis in Greek-Turkish relations as “favoring the aggressor” and called them “formally unacceptable.”The issue is Turkish military overflights of Greek islands near the Turkish coast and, as Mr. Molyviatis stated, “formally and publicly claiming territories of another member, Greece. Namely, 152 islands, islets and rock outcroppings in the Eastern Aegean sea.” He added that Turkey “has deployed the largest amphibious fleet in the Mediterranean” against these Greek islands even while “demanding their disarmament.”It is in Mr. Stoltenberg’s interest to keep the peace in the alliance, particularly at a time of war in Ukraine and when NATO is on the verge of expanding, against Turkish misgivings, to include Sweden and Finland. Yet Mr. Molyviatis assailed the secretary-general’s attempt to “keep an equal distance between the two countries” as playing into Turkey’s hands to the detriment of Greece, which he cast as the “victim.” “When you, Mr. Secretary-General, call on Greece to engage in dialogue with Turkey to resolve their differences, you are essentially asking Greece to make its territorial integrity the subject of negotiations with Turkey,” he wrote. “And you ask this while representing an Alliance that was set up and still exists for this very reason, namely the protection of the territorial integrity of its members.”Deteriorating relations between Athens and Ankara are now on the verge of eclipsing coverage of the Ukraine war in Greek media. There is endless chatter about the likelihood of a “hot summer” wherein Turkey may launch a surprise attack against one of the islands or islets that Mr. Molyviatis referenced in his missive. Underscoring the gravity of the situation, Greece’s foreign minister, Nikos Dendias, today briefed his counterparts in the EU Foreign Affairs Council on the growing stream of Turkish provocations. Greek diplomatic sources, it was reported separately in Kathimerini, said that Mr. Dendias “referred in detail to the recent Turkish overflights and violations near strategic points, such as the port of Alexandroupoli in northern Greece, as well as the instrumentation of migration flows, especially in the Evros border region, where an increase in attempts for illegal entry in Greece is being observed.”Very little about the timing of the unusually strident letter, which concluded with a frustrated call for Mr. Stoltenberg “to remain silent until your term ends,” is accidental. That the letter was published in Kathimerini, the leading Greek newspaper, itself speaks volumes.While it would be impolitic for the current Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis — or any Greek minister — to publicly criticize NATO, the newspaper is closely aligned with his center-right New Democracy party and has more leeway to do so. The bigger question is whether Mr. Mitsotakis will take his cue from a Greek political elite growing increasingly frustrated with Ankara’s antics and take a swipe of his own either at NATO’s leadership or Mr. Erdogan later this month at Madrid.

Deteriorating Greek-Turkish Relations Could Cloud NATO Summit

Deteriorating Greek-Turkish Relations Could Cloud NATO Summit

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