Insisting on the expansionist ‘Blue Homeland’
The positive climate that has been established in the last year between Greece and Turkey is on a collision course with the recurring rhetoric from Ankara about the expansionist doctrine of the so-called “Blue Homeland,” which envisages Turkish influence over vast areas that extend from the Black Sea, to the Aegean and the Mediterranean.
In Greece, even moderate politicians, diplomats and opinion makers who genuinely believe in an improved bilateral relationship with our neighbor to the east find it difficult to argue in support of their vision when voices on the other side of the Aegean continue to promote grandiose schemes and revisionist claims.
The recent incident near the Greek island of Kasos in the southern Aegean, and the ideological aggressiveness shown by the Turkish government in promoting the Blue Homeland doctrine was a reminder of Turkey’s maximalist approach that considers that nothing should happen in its – according to Turkey – wider “territory,” which doesn’t take into account its own rights (existing or nonexistent), and therefore without its knowledge, consent or participation.
Turkey’s former defense minister and currently AKP deputy and chairman of the Turkish Parliament’s National Security Committee, Hulusi Akar, recently stated that “the Blue Homeland is the continental shelf, the territorial waters, the EEZ, the maritime jurisdiction zones; it is all kinds of rights and interests above and below our seas. The Blue Homeland is our national issue. With 12,000 kilometers of coastline, with 462,000 square kilometers of sea fields, the Blue Homeland is a clear truth, not a fairy tale.”
The voices in support of the Blue Homeland – which will be taught in schools – are increasingly heard not only from Erdogan and his followers, but also from many in the opposition. In fact, the latest statements on the issue emanating from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are also seen to a certain extent as a response to the criticism by the Kemalist CHP – that the government is backtracking on the country’s foreign policy.
Even if the statements are aimed at the domestic audience and are an effort to respond to the prevailing sentiment – which, by the way, has been created by the politicians themselves – this behavior still acts as an impediment to any serious effort for a long-term improvement of bilateral relations. What has to be understood, analyzed and seriously taken into consideration by the decision makers in Ankara is that Athens is not “begging” for such an improvement. It is rather a development that would benefit both countries.
Greece is not only a force in its own right, but also a member of the European Union and in a strategic alliance with the United States. It is through this prism that Ankara should assess and manage its bilateral relationship with Greece.
