Patrickov wrote:Given that Greece has not been very militarily successful for the past century (since 1922, to be precise), they probably should team up with Israel or whoever strong and possibly anti-Turk in the area to save themselves from (another?) Turkish conquest.
For the record 1922 was a military defeat for Greece rather than a success. Though it was a spirited effort that resulted to a defeat due to attrition (.ie lack of money, foods and weapons after doing battle for 2 decades without stop) rather than outright defeat in battle.
Greece however has a very successful & proud modern warfare history that is very interesting to read if you are into this sort of thing with a lot of civil wars as well, more than any other country for the time span in fact.
Greece has never lost territory to anyone since becoming independent in the past 200 years even when she has officially lost the war like in 1922 & 1898, she has lost
some of the gains made during the war but never territory she possessed before the war. Greece has 2 sub-ethnic groups, the Maniots and the Souliots that are pure martial cultures. Communities that raise soldiers for many many generations. Such groups are exceptional in what they do and incredibly efficient to degrees that the average modern person cannot really comprehend.
Israel is indeed an ally of Greece and Cyprus though I highly doubt anyone in Greece actually relies on that military partnership in the event of war between Greece & Turkey. And there are a lot of reasons why one cannot rely on Israel. a) It has its own massive military problems having plenty of enemies already. b) Israel has been a Turkish ally far more consistently than it has been a Greek ally. c) Israel is understood by a lot of people including yourself to be some kind of military superpower but a closer examination of the actual facts shows otherwise. Israel for example has never fought an enemy from a real country like Italy, Germany, Russia, the UK, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Turkey(Ottoman Empire). Theses are countries that Greece has given battle to in the past 100 years and has won several engagements against these major powers(you might laugh with me including Bulgaria in the list but she has been a huge foe and again if you read her modern military history you will be quite surprised, thankfully for us she just always picked the wrong side). Hitler was so astounded by Greek military prowess that he uniquely permitted all Greek officers to keep their weapons after defeating them in battle in recognition of their valiance and courage.
Churchill, Eden, Stalin, Roosevelt, De Gaulle all have paid the ultimate tribute to Greece by calling her the real reason the Axis was defeated. Greece brought Italy, Mussolini and his famous Centaurs to their knees and conquered their Albanian colony. The one & only Axis territory conquered by an Ally in 1941. 1940-1943 being the time period the Axis was unstoppable bar this hiccup in Greece that resulted to the total annihilation of the German elite paratroopers in Crete. Thee record tells us that Greece was part of the reason the Central Powers lost the war in WW1. It was the entry of Greece against Bulgaria & Germany in WW1 that tipped the scales for the Entente in the then stable
Macedonian front that led to the total collapse of Bulgaria and the German and Austrian capitulation immediately afterwards as it opened a clear way to Vienna. Greece has beaten the Ottoman Empire in thousands of engagements. Israel on the other hand has only had to deal with the broken down former colonies of these countries, rather than these countries themselves. Greece has never lost a war or battle when allied with either Serbia or Bulgaria and has spent the better part of the past few decades developing these relationships as Greece was at war with both countries during and after WW2. These relationships have been developed at a very deep level at this moment as it is an existential issue and that is why I am not particularly worried about the prospect of war with Turkey. Turkey is aware of all these details and will not risk to get humiliated by Greece & Serbia or Bulgaria for example. What worries me however is Europe & the US of course. You may not realise this but Germany, the UK, the US and others have traditionally been on the side of Turkey against Greece in the most recent history say from the 60's onwards. How do you think the Cyprus debacle took place in 1974?* The emboldening of Erdogan is not something that fell from the sky, he has been given this rope by these countries in ways that are far more direct than you imagine. I am telling you this and keep it well in your mind, these countries are not simple tacit supporters of Erdogan because of immigrants or because they have no other options, they are pro-active allies of Turkey that feed his hand and this is a very dangerous game being played here because Erdogan does not need war to achieve his aims, he just needs the tacit support of these 3 countries playing along bad cop good cop with him to sap away Greek national rights in the Aegean. Consider this, where are the news about these developments? Why is the western press not talking about this matter? This "deal" took place about a week ago and the official request for troops from Libya came 3 days ago. Have you seen anything anywhere? Greek borders are also EU borders, they are also NATO borders, where is the outrage for these truly outrageous acts on the part of Turkey and Libya?
*The Cyprus debacle would tell you anything you need to know about the betrayal of the Americans & the British. The democratic government of Greece had 10000 troops stationed in the island capable of defending the island from any threat. The Americans and Brits were begging, requesting, ordering,
threatening Greece to remove her troops for several years and incapable of fighting the leftist government(who put the troops there) "Union of Centre" in the elections they brought a Coup in Greece with an official CIA agent as the dictator and the Greek King as the catalyst and hence why the Royals were removed along with the junta. The first act of the Greek dictator was to remove the Greek troops from Cyprus and a couple of years later to invite Turkey to invade the island while the Greek army stood down. Some few hundred Greek commandos in Cyprus that were left stranded in the island teamed up with the unarmed Cypriot national guard and effected major blows to the Turkish navy who invaded unopposed and still managed to lose ships(by blowing up their own) and lots of equipment.
EN EL ED EM ON
...take your common sense with you, and leave your prejudices behind...