BY OKTAY EKSI
HURRIYET- The fact that Turkish and Greek boats have been uttering threats and challenging each other even while Greek Foreign Minister Petros Molivyatis is in Ankara to discuss how the two nations can obtain lasting peace and friendship confuses us. Maybe you’ve been able to make some sense of it. We haven’t…
Our Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and his Greek counterpart Petros Molivyatis signed an agreement to end dogfights over the Aegean. Meanwhile, the Athens News Agency reported that 34 Turkish airplanes had recently violated international air traffic laws by violating Greece’s national airspace.
Gul had previously announced that he was against lifting the casus belli decision, but somehow he changed his mind overnight and expressed that he had no objection to removing it. I’d say, ‘If no one has any objections, then just announce that the casus belli has been lifted and be done with it.’ But it’s not that simple.
Let’s say the Kardak issue is just a minor, unfortunate disagreement. What about Turkish airplanes violating Greece’s national airspace? If the reports are true, doesn’t this mean that our Foreign Ministry and General Staff have communications problems?
Let’s make it clear, we do want to be friends with the Greeks, but we believe that friendship is only possible if both sides adopt a serious and sincere approach towards each other.
But if you say, ‘Let Turkey lift the casus belli and give up on Kardak, but let Greece continue to teach its children in primary school that Turks are savages and barbarians. Let Greece ignore the European Union criteria for minorities when it comes to Turks living in western Thrace. And let Greece still recognize the Armenian ‘genocide’ and other fake claims.’ If you say this, then I say, no way.