Turkey's Victory Day celebrations further poison the waters of the eastern Mediterranean
"Turkey's struggle for independence and future also continues today". These were the words used by the president of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his speech on the Victory Day. "It is not at all a coincidence that those who try to exclude us from the Eastern Mediterranean are the same ones who tried to invade our country a century ago", he has said opening a new chapter in the dialectical war that puts the country on the Bosphorus against Greece for the sovereignty of the Eastern Mediterranean.
Erdogan made these statements on the occasion of Victory Day, a holiday commemorating the establishment of the Republic of Turkey after the final defeat of the Greek army in Anatolia in 1922. The president of the Nationalist Action Party (in Turkish Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP), Devlet Bahçeli has used this same rhetoric and described Greece as "a malignant tumour" that has been bothering Turkey since 1821, the year when the war of independence started. "It seems that the humiliating remnants of the invaders who were expelled by the Turkish people to the Aegean Sea 98 years ago have not learned their lessons and have not learned from the historical events. Turkey will not turn its back on our historical interests in the Mediterranean and the Aegean", he warned.
During his speech she also criticised the deployment of French military forces in the Eastern Mediterranean. "Greece is the one playing with fire and France is the instigator. As for those who sit around the table waiting for the winning game, they are very well known countries", he said in statements which were reported by the Greek City Times. Tensions between two members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) rose again this weekend after Ankara launched new military exercises in the eastern Mediterranean.
Greece claims that the waters are part of its continental shelf and has obtained the support of the EU bloc, which has condemned Turkey's "illegal activities" and warned of possible sanctions against Ankara. The country chaired by Erdogan, for its part, says that Greece and others are denying its rights to explore energy resources in the Mediterranean.
Beyond this exchange of accusations, the Victory Day celebrations have been marked by the floral offering that was deposited in the mausoleum of the founder of the Turkish Republic Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, President Erdogan together with government and military officials and opposition leaders. "Turkey, in the eastern Mediterranean in particular, will not bow to the language of threats, intimidation and blackmail, but will continue to defend its rights under international law and bilateral agreements," Erdogan stressed during the celebration.
The Turkish President's statements have fuelled tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, after Turkish and Greek forces participated in a series of military exercises in this area in recent weeks. "Our critical achievements in different fields are the clearest indication of our will to protect the rights and interests of our country", Erdogan has written in the commemorative book located in the Mausoleum of Ataturk, according to several local media. "We are determined to enter 2023, where we will celebrate the centenary of our Republic, as a stronger, more independent and prosperous country in economic, military, political and diplomatic terms," he added in his writing.
"Today we challenge our enemies with a louder voice than yesterday. We do not run away from the struggle, falling down for the motherland does not make us back down", said the Turkish leader during a speech at a military academy in Ankara. "The essential question is: Will those who now rise against us in the Mediterranean and neighbouring areas risk to make the same sacrifice? Will the Greek people accept what will fall on them because of their greedy and incompetent leaders? Do the French people know the price they will have to pay because of their greedy and incompetent leaders", he asked himself warning that his country "is ready to pay any price on the way we have taken".
The eastern Mediterranean has historically been a source of tension. On the one hand, it is the gateway to the Red Sea through Egypt and, on the other, the gateway to Europe. The discovery of large gas deposits by Israel, Egypt and Lebanon in 2009 has opened a new wound in the area, further poisoning the waters of this sea. Tension has been heightened after Ankara announced the start of seismic prospecting activities by the ship Orus Reis. The last chapter of this diplomatic conflict took place this Saturday, after Turkish Vice-President Fuat Oktay commented on Greece's announcement to extend its territorial waters in the Ionian Sea off Italy from 6 to 12 nautical miles, and warned that a similar gesture in the Aegean would lead to war.
"This would mean that neither tourist ships, nor fishermen, nor commercial vessels would be able to pass from the Aegean to the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea in international waters. Do you expect us to accept that? If this is not a reason for war, what is? On the same day, Ankara began artillery manoeuvres at sea between the Turkish and Cyprus coasts, according to the EFE news agency.