Turkish reserve admiral Cem Gürdəniz has commented on the developments in the Eastern Mediterranean, which have led to the deepening of tension between Turkey and Greece.
Gürdəniz, alluding to the West, has asserted that they have come out against Turkey with the map of Sevres, which is supposed to push Turkey back and confine it within the borders of Anatolia.
“That map forces us to accept the Aegean Sea entirely as a Greek sea, imprisons us in the gulfs of Alexandretta and Antalya in the Eastern Mediterranean, and in the west, within our territorial waters,” Gürdəniz stated, adding that Ankara, since the early 2000s, has opposed and continues to challenge that map.
According to the Turkish admiral, it is not Turkey that must change its position regarding the Eastern Mediterranean, but Greece, because “Turkey defends what belongs to it, in other words, it defends its maritime homeland, whose borders are drawn by the ‘National Pact’.”
“The USA wants to put Turkey in the mold it desires, so that it can impose on it the implementation of American policy in the region. Turkey, after the ‘Cold War’, has returned to its own policy and does not renounce it. And its priorities, naturally, are its interests in the Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus and the Aegean Sea.
The world giants do not want Turkey to be a powerful country in maritime and energy terms. From this perspective, the resolutions adopted against Turkey, the arms supply embargoes and the remaining sanctions aim to impose their ‘line’ on Turkey. Turkey resists, is forced to resist, because if the resistance is broken, we will be faced with a second Sevres,” Gürdəniz said.
The latter also deemed unlikely the scenario in which NATO members, such as the United States and France, would help Greece in the event of a military clash against Turkey. According to Gürdəniz, that would bring the alliance to the brink of collapse or a partial phase, which, according to US geopolitical theories, is tantamount to a nightmare.
“Turkey, thanks to its defense industry, has also grown stronger in the Eastern Mediterranean. They did not expect Turkey to become so strong at sea and to reach, within the defense industry sector, the power that would allow it to stand up to them. That is why confusion now prevails in the West’s head as well. Turkey is establishing a military base in Libya. These are things that are very far from the formulation that the West has drawn for Turkey. Getting used to these things naturally takes time. Every country wants to be strong before sitting at the (negotiating-ed.) table. Turkey is doing that,” concluded the Turkish admiral.
