Erdogan is playing his own game. Turkey dreams of controlling the Eastern Mediterranean, especially now that fossil fuel deposits have been found there. They’ve been trying for years to create an incident with Greece to take control of several islands and to get the occupied part of Cyprus to be recognized as a legitimate state.
The problem is that both Greece and Turkey are part of NATO, and control of the disputed areas and sea zones has already being decided by treaties before.
Turkey is playing both sides, in an effort to get NATO to force Greece to give them concessions in the Agean, as well as increase Turkey’s importance to the alliance.
A few years ago, they were helping NATO in Syria and opposing Russia, in an effort to take control of Syrian soil, which they succeeded. Now that that’s over, Erdogan switched sides. In a few years he will switch sides again.
He can afford to, because Turkey has an important geographical position, one of the largest military forces in NATO, and can leverage the large Turkish diaspora in Western Europe to affect internal politics.
Erdogan is playing his own game. Turkey dreams of controlling the Eastern Mediterranean, especially now that fossil fuel deposits have been found there. They’ve been trying for years to create an incident with Greece to take control of several islands and to get the occupied part of Cyprus to be recognized as a legitimate state.
The problem is that both Greece and Turkey are part of NATO, and control of the disputed areas and sea zones has already being decided by treaties before.
Turkey is playing both sides, in an effort to get NATO to force Greece to give them concessions in the Agean, as well as increase Turkey’s importance to the alliance.
A few years ago, they were helping NATO in Syria and opposing Russia, in an effort to take control of Syrian soil, which they succeeded. Now that that’s over, Erdogan switched sides. In a few years he will switch sides again.
He can afford to, because Turkey has an important geographical position, one of the largest military forces in NATO, and can leverage the large Turkish diaspora in Western Europe to affect internal politics.