[JohnRawls]

Greek EEZ is laughable and unworkable. They are trying to steal almost all Turkish coastal from Aegean sea to Mediterranean sea. Both in theory and practice, Turkey won't allow such provocation to be successful. This conflict will result in Cyprus and islands on Aegean sea returned back to Turkey.

Turkish-Libyan EEZ is the one first declared and submitted to United Nations. Any possible EEZ overlapping it cannot be legal. So Greek-Egyptian EEZ is born dead.

What are you gonna do about it? Greece has far more support than Turkey. Support of Egypt is far more important in this question than anything that Turkey has. Note, this is an issue that Turkey created by itself. If it didn't aggravate Greece then you wouldn't be in this situation. Ultimately more countries will support the Greek/Egyptian position including places like Israel and Cyprus.

You can try to enforce your zone using military means but that won't get Turkey far when the question gets ruled in Greek favour. It will just increase the support for the Greek plan.

[Istanbuller]

What are you gonna do about it? Greece has far more support than Turkey. Support of Egypt is far more important in this question than anything that Turkey has. Note, this is an issue that Turkey created by itself. If it didn't aggravate Greece then you wouldn't be in this situation. Ultimately more countries will support the Greek/Egyptian position including places like Israel and Cyprus.

You can try to enforce your zone using military means but that won't get Turkey far when the question gets ruled in Greek favour. It will just increase the support for the Greek plan.

Your sentences are a non-starter. You don't have any clue about it, do you? It is Turkey who is victim. They think that Turkey shouldn't have any rights on gas and oil reserves while having a very large Mediternian and Agean coastal.

Turkish navy is already patrolling these areas for a very long time. Don't you read the news? We won't do anything about a fake deal.

Merkel promised Erdogan to solve the issue peacefully. If she fails, then, unfortunately, we will have to use some force.

[JohnRawls]

Your sentences are a non-starter. You don't have any clue about it, do you? It is Turkey who is victim. They think that Turkey shouldn't have any rights on gas and oil reserves while having a very large Mediternian and Agean coastal.

Turkish navy is already patrolling these areas for a very long time. Don't you read the news? We won't do anything about a fake deal.

Merkel promised Erdogan to solve the issue peacefully. If she fails, then, unfortunately, we will have to use some force.

Turkey is the victim? Turkey is the perpetrator and not the victim. Turkey may patrol whatever it wants as long as it does nothing.

[noemon]

The Turkish 'Oruc Reis' switched off its radar and departed the port escorted by warships. The Greek Navy & Armed Forces have gone into high-alert while the Navy is monitoring the movements of the Turkish ships. Athens has made it clear that she will not tolerate any violation of its territorial waters & continental shelf.

Emergency military & political meeting to be held at 12pm today.

[Skynet]

All eastern Mediterranean countries agreed to share the Gas reserves just Turkey was not invited to the conference

[noemon]

Last night, the Greek frigate Limnos outmanoeuvred a modern Turkish frigate that tried to ram it and rammed it instead causing severe damage to the Kemal Reis warship in the Aegean.



Turkish media have remained completely silent about this incident, except for EHA News, who wrote on Twitter that the Greek frigate was “intercepted” by the Turkish frigate Kemal Reis and caused damage to the Greek ship, forcing it to return to port.

However, photos published today by the Greek Navy show the Greek ship intact without damage or other problems. EHA News quickly deleted their Tweet after it was revealed that the Limnos frigate had no damage.



Respected military journalist Ioannis Nikitas was one of the first to break the news about the incident on his Twitter, saying “there was no major collision but only minor damage.”



In his article on Defense Review, Nikitas however updated the information and revealed that “a recent update states that the Turkish frigate MEKO 200 has suffered serious damage.”

Meanwhile, Army Voice, citing officials from the Ministry of National Defense who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed the incident but hinted that a tacit agreement has been reached to not let the news get too big.

Yesterday, Greek City Times reported on a speech made by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitostakis that was announced only minutes before the broadcast.

He delivered the speech in a seriousness that some social media users have said they have never seen before from Mitsotakis, and said that “the risk of an accident lurks when so many troops are concentrated in a limited area. And the responsibility in such a case will be borne by the one who causes these conditions.”

Many in Greece are now linking Mitsotakis’ uncharacteristically serious tone and speech to the incident between the Limnos and the Turkish frigate.

What makes this incident all the more extraordinary is that the Kemal Reis Turkish frigate is one of the most modern in the Turkish Navy, belonging to the Barbaros-class and commissioned in 2000.

Meanwhile, the Limnos is an old Elli-class frigate that was commissioned in 1982 and is one of the most inferior ships in the Greek Navy.

None-the-less, the old Limnos managed to damage the Kemal Reis enough that it had to return to port, demonstrating once again the superiority of Greek seamanship and why the Greek Navy has never lost a battle since its modern formation in 1821.

The fact that Turkish Oruç Reis research vessel left the Greek continental shelf shortly after the incident and illegally entered the Cypriot one is another point of proof that Turkey was rattled by the incident.

SLPress explained that “Greece has benefited doubly from the way the Turkish offensive movement developed. First, because the Greek frigate managed to turn the Turkish offensive into a boomerang. Secondly, because there is a record that shows Turkish aggression.”

The complete Turkish silence about the incident is telling, and also explains why Turkey is desperately pushing for a diplomatic line now. One of Turkey’s most modern frigates was humiliated by one of Greece’s oldest.

The Kemal Reis is likely to be out of service for many months according to Militaire. It's propeller shaft has been twisted and water has entered into the cetacean of the Turkish frigate.

Erdogan to retaliate over ‘attack’ on Turkish vessel-The Times

All eastern Mediterranean countries agreed to share the Gas reserves just Turkey was not invited to the conference

No dear, that is a soundbite, the eastern Med countries that have proven gas reserves in their sovereign waters agreed to cooperate with each other, they did not agree to share something while the countries that have no proven gas reserves have no business with it anyway. Turkey should learn to live within its own borders rather than trying to steal Greek & Cypriot territory; she has already caused enough trouble in Syria and Libya.

In other news, Aghia Sophia Islamic Muezzin dies of heart-attack in the Church just days after its conversion to a Mosque.

[noemon]

The Times view on tensions between Greece and Turkey: Erdogan’s Provocations
The two nations stand on the brink of conflict over energy resources

For more than 70 years Nato has kept the peace in Europe. Now two of its member states, Greece and Turkey, are on the brink of conflict not with an external enemy but with each other. This week Greece placed its armed forces on high alert. Not since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974 has the danger of war been so pressing.

The immediate reason is the countries’ competing claims to natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean. The wider cause is the mercurial conduct of President Erdogan of Turkey. The countries’ Nato allies and the European Union, to which Greece belongs and Turkey is linked in a customs union, should urge negotiation. Yet arbitration should not be mistaken for equidistance. Turkey’s claims and conduct are not defensible. Greece can reasonably expect its allies to state this to Mr Erdogan, who, like his ally Vladimir Putin, is wont to engage in brinkmanship.

The eastern Mediterranean basin has abundant energy resources in the form of deep-sea gasfields. Their exploration over the past decade might have been a catalyst for regional co-operation and the resolution of longstanding disputes. Instead, it has taken these conflicts to another level. Ankara insists that the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus must benefit from the gas reserves that surround Cyprus. It opposes the actions of the Republic of Cyprus and of international energy companies in exploiting these resources.

No other country recognises Northern Cyprus. The Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state, is the legitimate government for the whole island. Turkey has long insisted that the government in Nicosia has no authority to sign agreements and award concessions over drilling rights unless it comes to an agreement with Northern Cyprus over revenue sharing. There is no basis for this claim, and in the meantime the Republic of Cyprus has co-operated with Egypt, Greece, Israel, Jordan, Italy and the Palestinian Authority to establish a regional energy authority to co-ordinate policies.

Ankara sent a seismic survey ship, the Oruc Reis, this week to conduct research in waters around Greek islands. Turkish governments have long claimed that the country and its Cypriot enclave have the right to benefit from the region’s energy reserves. Turkey balks especially at Greek insistence that each of the hundreds of Greek islands in the Aegean has its own continental shelf and rights to surrounding resources. Yet Greece’s claim for territorial waters surrounding the islands is in accord with the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, to which Turkey is not a signatory.


In effect, Turkey is declaring its unwillingness to abide by legal requirements in the resolution of disputes over territory and resources. The danger that this could spark conflict is acute. Turkey is a substantial naval power. EU states have hastened to dial down the tension, with Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, issuing a direct appeal to Mr Erdogan to pull back. President Macron of France has unequivocally backed Greece.

Mr Erdogan has shifted the position of Turkey in the international order, and not in a good way. If Turkey negotiates in good faith, then energy competition ought to be capable of resolution. Yet Nato cannot have a member state that refuses to live within its long-established borders and encroaches on Greek and Cypriot waters. That is a non-negotiable principle, and its leaders should lose no time in impressing it upon Mr Erdogan.

[Beren]

I wonder if Turkey will pull out of NATO due to this conflict if the rest of NATO side with Greece finally.

In other news, Aghia Sophia Islamic Muezzin dies of heart-attack in the Church just days after its conversion to a Mosque.

Let Allah alone decide for you.

[QatzelOk]

In other news, Aghia Sophia Islamic Muezzin dies of heart-attack in the Church just days after its conversion to a Mosque.

Is this supposed to convince anyone that Greece is correct and Turkey is wrong?

Is this a dog-whistle aimed at seducing people who are still motivated by residual christianity?

[annatar1914]

Is this supposed to convince anyone that Greece is correct and Turkey is wrong?

Is this a dog-whistle aimed at seducing people who are still motivated by residual christianity?

''residual''?

[noemon]

Is this a dog-whistle aimed at seducing people who are still motivated by residual christianity?

It is indeed to inform people of [residual or non] Islamic tendencies.

[Istanbuller]

As far as I understand, both Egypt and Greece do not sign any deal yet. There are many difficulties to possible EEZ agreement. Actually it is not even EEZ agreement because it overlaps another EEZ which was declared first.

Greece and Egypt are not major players but minors. They are acting under The West's economic blockade of Turkey plan.

Currently Turkey, The UK and The US negotiate a task which can resolve issues in Libyan and Eastern Mediternian fields. If talks fail, then Russia will be a parmenent power in Eastern Mediternian. We will work with Russians.

I wonder if Turkey will pull out of NATO due to this conflict if the rest of NATO side with Greece finally.

No. It is not Greece versus Turkey. Greece is a lapdog. The conflict is between Turkey and France & Germany.

NATO membership is a valuable asset for Turkey. We will never give up on that as long as union dissolves itself. But Macron shall leave if he is not happy.

[noemon]

As far as I understand, both Egypt and Greece do not sign any deal yet. There are many difficulties to possible EEZ agreement. Actually it is not even EEZ agreement because it overlaps another EEZ which was declared first.

The illegal EEZ you declared with Libya does not exist under any law and is not recognised by any authority. Turkey submitted it to the UN but the UN has refused to accept it as a valid document and has not even filed it. Put it simply your illegal accord with Libya has not even received a filing protocol number because it does not abide by any law. It encircles Crete, Rhodes, Kastellorizo and several Greek islands and is a de-facto declaration of war. The Greek-Egyptian EEZ on the contrary is fully legal, abides by UN law and is accepted as valid by the international community.

No. It is not Greece versus Turkey. Greece is a lapdog. The conflict is between Turkey and France & Germany.

Germany is your friend, she is the only one preventing full western sanctions against you because of those 5 million Turkish votes in Germany and the arms Germany sells to Turkey. The conflict only exists because your idiot dictator has lost several battles and thinks he will score a win against Greece in order to stroke your nationalist ego. Greece will carry on humiliating you both at land and at sea and without anybody's help. Greece humiliated you in land a few months ago when you tried to use the migrants to break through our borders and again when your modern ship tried to bully us at sea. The reality is that you are minor players pretending to be big ones while getting humiliated in the process.

Stop trying to be bullies, be happy in your own borders and let's be friends. As we keep telling you through all the channels, we will not tolerate any of your bullying. We have the right on our side and more than enough capability to withstand your nuisance.
Greece is not Libya or Syria.

[Beren]

No. It is not Greece versus Turkey. Greece is a lapdog. The conflict is between Turkey and France & Germany.

In this case I should have phrased my question in present tense: Does Turkey pull out of NATO due to this conflict since Greece is just a lapdog to the rest of NATO?

[QatzelOk]

It is indeed to inform people of [residual or non] Islamic tendencies.

Are you saying that Muslim Muezzins "tend to" die after converting churches?

Or are you saying that the all-powerful Abrahamic God killed him because that particular God is the correct and all-powerful one, as opposed to all those false Greek Gods?

[noemon]

I am explicitly saying that Muslim Hubris leads to Haram as all good Muslims should know.

[Istanbuller]

The illegal EEZ you declared with Libya does not exist under any law and is not recognised by any authority. Turkey submitted it to the UN but the UN has refused to accept it as a valid document and has not even filed it. Put it simply your illegal accord with Libya has not even received a filing protocol number because it does not abide by any law. It encircles Crete, Rhodes, Kastellorizo and several Greek islands and is a de-facto declaration of war. The Greek-Egyptian EEZ on the contrary is fully legal, abides by UN law and is accepted as valid by the international community.

The difference between us is Turkey is capable of defending its waters on its own whereas neither Greece nor Egypt has the same capacity.

Germany is your friend, she is the only one preventing full western sanctions against you because of those 5 million Turkish votes in Germany and the arms Germany sells to Turkey. The conflict only exists because your idiot dictator has lost several battles and thinks he will score a win against Greece in order to stroke your nationalist ego. Greece will carry on humiliating you both at land and at sea and without anybody's help. Greece humiliated you in land a few months ago when you tried to use the migrants to break through our borders and again when your modern ship tried to bully us at sea. The reality is that you are minor players pretending to be big ones while getting humiliated in the process.

Stop trying to be bullies, be happy in your own borders and let's be friends. As we keep telling you through all the channels, we will not tolerate any of your bullying. We have the right on our side and more than enough capability to withstand your nuisance.
Greece is not Libya or Syria.

Germany is no ally to Turkey. It is why Germany has blocked Turkey's EU membership. Germany wouldn't want see a strong and armed Turkey. Merkel administration opposes Turkish involvement in Libya either.
Merkel requested Erdoğan to retreat from navtex decision and Erdoğan accepted that. It was for a sign of goodwill. However, Greece violated it and tried to declare EEZ. A gentelman wouldn't behave like this. Greece is a sinister state. We don't believe in Germany's friendship either.

Anyway, Turkey redeclared navtex on Eastern Mediterranean yesterday. Deal with its consequences if you can.

In this case I should have phrased my question in present tense: Does Turkey pull out of NATO due to this conflict since Greece is just a lapdog to the rest of NATO?

Turkey will not pull out of NATO in any case and scenario. TAF is the second most important army in NATO. Turkey functions as a bridge between NATO and external countries like Russia and China.

[noemon]

The difference between us is Turkey is capable of defending its waters on its own whereas neither Greece nor Egypt has the same capacity.

Turkey is incapable of forcing its will to Greece by military means, she is also incapable of forcing it legally and diplomatically because she is wrong and the waters simply do not belong to her. If Turkey decides to militarise the situation she will be more humiliated than she already has.

Germany is no ally to Turkey. It is why Germany has blocked Turkey's EU membership. Germany wouldn't want see a strong and armed Turkey. Merkel administration opposes Turkish involvement in Libya either.
Merkel requested Erdoğan to retreat from navtex decision and Erdoğan accepted that. It was for a sign of goodwill. However, Greece violated it and tried to declare EEZ. A gentelman wouldn't behave like this. Greece is a sinister state. We don't believe in Germany's friendship either.

Anyway, Turkey redeclared navtex on Eastern Mediterranean yesterday. Deal with its consequences if you can.

You are clearly fed propaganda in Turkey from all sides. Germany is a huge ally of Turkey, both historically and at the present moment, Volkswagen has built factories in Turkey, Turkey buys 1/3 of all German arms exports, Germany was the only EU country that refused to sign off economic sanctions against Turkey, and Germany has 5 million German Turkish voters, but I highly doubt Germany will be able to hide all these pro-Turkish stuff from the Germans and the Europeans for any longer, in every summit she keeps on losing ground, because the whole of Europe knows your game and no-one will have it this time. Your bluffs only work when there is no real loss for the other party, in this case the loss is national sovereign territory and this shall not pass in Europe. The entire EU has had enough walking on eggshells with you. You are an aggressive dictatorship that seeks European territory, the benefit of the doubt is gone.

Greece officially declaring an EEZ with Egypt was a direct consequence of your illegal EEZ with Libya, unlike your illegal one ours is fully legitimate and we have more than enough firepower to defend our borders from you.

Turkey will not pull out of NATO in any case and scenario. TAF is the second most important army in NATO. Turkey functions as a bridge between NATO and external countries like Russia and China.

Turkey's army is not necessary for NATO and the Turkish army is no such thing anyway, that is just stories you tell yourselves to make yourselves feel bigger than you are. NATO's army can take over the planet 3 times over without Turkey. Most importantly, you cannot field your army, you do not have the money or the industry or the weapons to do that. Your economy will be bankrupt in less than a year as you currently are and you have not even mobilised a tenth of your army already, once you mobilise more you will simply race to bankruptcy sooner. Your big population and large reserves cannot be mobilised under any case scenario except for total war mode which happens never. Battles are fought by small militaries, by small combat, air and naval units and they are fought in a small scale and for little duration.
In these scales Greece has more than enough capability to face off whatever little game you throw at us and not just to face it but to outright humiliate you as we are already doing and as you know this does not just go for military but also for all the other things we compete with each other, football, basketball, survivor, whatever. You play with us, the vast majority of the time, you lose, because we are organised, constituted, heavily armed and have no fear of you at all. You on the other hand have more reasons to fear us as getting humiliated by us has a lot more cost for you, the stakes for you and your dictator are higher, when you lose one little skirmish, he falls, your opposition starts calling him a traitor and chaos comes to Turkey, we are fully unified, we have no 5th column in our country and we totally support our government because we are right.
In this little game of yours in the Aegean you have already lost, this is not your territory, the only question is when will you come to terms with evident reality and how much more damage will you cause in the process.

[Istanbuller]

I hate to repeat same things over and over. But your wishful thinkings force me to do it.

Turkey is capable of forcing its will on anyone in the region. Both militariliy and diplomatically, we are leading the race. You are not even brave enough to sign EEZ agreement. Because it also reverse your territorial claims.

Greece is not in a position to criticize anyone for being militarised. You already militarised island on the agean sea while you are not allowed to do so. Turkey has legal basis to demand those island back from Greece. We can do it throught international courts.

If Turkey decides to fight, you can't even survive for hours. I am sure TAF has already many tasks and plans about such an attack which will paralyze you.

[noemon]

It is quite funny that you are calling my statement "wishful thinking".

You are also confused over what "militarised" means. If you pick a military fight with Greece, you will suffer a huge humiliation as you already have and that is why you are not doing it.

Diplomatically and legally you cannot force anything on anyone because you are legally wrong. We are not the ones afraid to discuss with you about our respective EEZ's, you were the ones who walked out the table for the nth time.

The best you can do is damage control and keep quiet instead of making extreme nationalist proclamations from which you will not be able to back down from.

You are far more weak than you pretend to be and your barking has no effect on anybody. Your economy and currency are the worst they have been for over 3 decades, you are already on the way to bankruptcy and you would have to face an actually organised and heavily armed military, navy & airforce, something you have not done since WW1.

The only advantage you have over Greece is your population which gives you more soldiers to throw in battle, but that advantage means nothing at all because whatever happens it will not be the kind of battle that requires more than say 100,000 soldiers and we can field up to half a million people which is more than sufficient to hold you off for years if need be. In terms of equipment and weapons we are evenly matched and these are very bad odds for you because we will be defending, we also have the naval advantage because like it or not we are the global leaders in seamanship and our navy is big enough to deal with yours. You can hardly hold a strip of land in Syria and Libya is 85% controlled by Khaftar despite Erdogan going insane and sending all you got.

Not to mention the very obvious, that if you do decide to pick a fight with Greece you will be picking a fight with Europe and most of the west as well.

As others have said the only natural conclusion would be you ending up with the Treaty of Sevres at the best case scenario.