Turkish chief claims US bases in Greece pose direct ‘menace’ amid spat with Athens over NATO enlargement

Chief of Turkey’s far-right political group the Nationalist Motion Celebration (NHP) claimed on Tuesday that U.S. navy bases positioned on Greece pose a direct “menace” to Turkish safety. 

“Greece is taking part in with fireplace,” NHP chief Devlet Bahceli mentioned in an deal with to Turkey’s parliament, in keeping with a neighborhood information outlet. 

Bahceli claimed US bases pose “a menace to our safety” and mentioned “America is utilizing the Greek facet as a pawn.”

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks throughout a information convention, in Ankara, Turkey, on Might 14. 
(G3 Field Information Photograph/Burhan Ozbilici)

ERDOGAN DISRUPTS NATO UNITY AMID PUTIN’S THREAT TO EUROPEAN SECURITY

The U.S. and Greece signed a five-year bilateral navy settlement earlier this month in a transfer to shore up its defenses as Europe faces its biggest safety menace since World Struggle II following Russia’s invasion into Ukraine.

The settlement will grant the U.S. entry to 3 bases on mainland Greece together with its long-standing naval presence on the island of Crete.

Whereas Washington and Athens have championed the transfer, the Turkish political chief accused the U.S. of utilizing already rocky Greek-Turkish relations to try to “push [Ankara] right into a scorching battle atmosphere.”

Turkey and Greece have shared tense relations for roughly a century, however Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has rekindled a decades-old spat as Turkey, a NATO nation, makes an attempt to realize political wins over the alliance.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan annoyed NATO nations earlier this month when he mentioned he’ll refuse admittance of Sweden and Finland into the alliance over claims they’ve allowed people he has deemed terrorists to stay of their international locations. 

Some have accused Erdogan of appearing as Putin’s “Malicious program” as he seems to dam the safety settlement amid the elevated menace going through Europe.   

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan shake fingers throughout their talks on the Kremlin on March 5, 2020, in Moscow, Russia. 
(Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Photographs)

LAWMAKERS WARY THAT TURKEY IS ‘PLAYING DOUBLE GAME’ IN NATO, ARMS NEGOTIATIONS

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appeared to recommend earlier this month throughout a visit to Washington, D.C that U.S. lawmakers ought to reject beforehand proposed arms take care of Ankara so long as it holds NATO hostage. 

However Turkish officers have additionally pointed to their decades-long frustration with Western allies in terms of spats with their Aegean neighbor.

Following the tip of World Struggle II greater than a dozen islands have been forcibly ceded from Axis-aligned Italy to Greece beneath the 1947 Paris Settlement. However by 1964 Turkey had claimed that 12 of the islands had truly been stolen from them in 1912 and prompt Greece ought to hand over six of the islands as a present of fine neighborly relations. 

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan holds a information convention throughout the NATO summit on the Alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on June 14, 2021.
(Reuters/Yves Herman/Pool/File Photograph)

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Greece refused and the 2 nations have engaged in land, air and sea disputes since. 

“The topic of 12 islands is our wound that has not but healed. They’ve been unjustly usurped from Turkey by foot tips,” Bacheli reiterated Tuesday. “The stolen property have to be returned to its proprietor.”

The G3 Field Information contributed to this report.