Turkey’s Bahceli: we can easily cross the Aegean
Devlet Bahceli, chairman of Turkey’s Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and an ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, added Sunday to the endless litany of aggressive statements by Turkish officials, saying that it would be easy for Turks to reach the opposite coast of the Aegean.
“The government of Greece must stop…constantly poking us…Greece wants the whole world to condemn Turkey. The Greek government is playing with fire when it claims that after Ukraine there is the danger of another war. The islands, on which it sits unlawfully and unfairly, are our right. They should not provoke us. They should not test our patience. If they want to be driven to the sea once again, let them tell us and we will throw them all, God wiling. For us, it is nothing to get from our coast to the opposite Aegean coast,” Bahceli said.
Asked by the Associated Press, during Sunday’s press conference at the Thessaloniki International Fair, whether a recent escalation in rhetoric from Turkey, led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, could be the prelude to an armed conflict, Mitsotakis replied negatively.
“I don’t believe this will ever happen. And if, God forbid, it happened, Turkey would receive an absolutely devastating response, and I think they know it very well. Turkey knows the competence of the Greek (armed) forces, and the level of their readiness, very well.”
(Kathimerini/AP)
