BEHIND THE SCENES OF A GREEK SHOW

The battle of words that took place on April 16 and lasted more than half an hour between the foreign ministers of Turkey and Greece during a briefing in Ankara hit the headlines of both local and international media outlets. But this is not the first and, perhaps, not the last scandal between the two unfriendly neighbours.

A similar situation was recorded on December 7, 2017 during a joint press conference of the Turkish and Greek presidents in Athens. A dispute arose between Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Greek counterpart Prokopis Pavlopoulos over the Lausanne Agreement. The heads of state spent about 40 minutes to sort things out, using hard-hitting remarks and accusations against each other.

Given the traditionally tense relations between the two states, the recent scandal between Turkish and Greek foreign ministers in Ankara was viewed in Greece as a manifestation of heroism. According to a number of political analysts, the behaviour of Minister Nikos Dendias, albeit incompatible with the status of a diplomat, was allegedly demonstrated under the instruction of the incumbent Greek government. Because it was necessary to calm down the internal audience, especially the nationalist circles of Greece. In fact, despite the tension in relations between the two countries, their diplomats and military personnel maintain a regular dialogue, trying to avoid the sharp corners of political relations whenever possible. Dendias's talks with the Turkish President Erdogan and Turkish Foreign Minister Cavusoglu during his visit to Ankara were positive. Ministers agreed to make a joint statement following the talks. And then we had this shameful moment in front of the cameras...

Origins of the problem

True, there are unresolved issues between the two countries. In recent years, Greece has been particularly worried about Turkey's policy in the Mediterranean. Athens is trying to create an impression that Ankara is pursuing an expansionist policy, gradually turning becoming a threat to the whole of Europe.

Over the past few years, a number of issues have added to the previously existing and still unresolved issues between Ankara and Athens. The most troubling ones are the issue of refugees, as well as the development of hydrocarbon deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean and the delimitation of maritime spheres of influence.

In line with the agreement reached between the EU and Turkey in 2015, Brussels promised to provide financial support to Ankara and fulfil a number of other obligations to stop the flow of refugees from Syria and other Asian countries to Europe. However, later the parties disagreed over the implementation of the agreement. EU officials accused Turkey of failing to fulfil its obligations. Ankara has filed a counter-charge, including the EU's refusal to provide financial assistance to Turkey. The divisions then escalated into political tensions, and in February 2020, the Turkish government opened the border, allowing thousands of refugees to cross into Greece and further into Europe. The Greek government tried to prevent a massive flow of refugees to the country by deploying military forces and police to the border. As a result, relations between Athens and Ankara worsened even more, forcing the EU to provide part of the financial assistance to Greece.

The second regional political crisis between Turkey and Greece took place when large oil and gas reserves were discovered in the Eastern Mediterranean. This caused disagreements between the two states on the issue of delimiting the sea area and spheres of influence. In particular, regarding the disputed zone around the island of Cyprus. On November 28, 2019, Turkey and Libya signed a memorandum on limiting maritime zones of influence. The document can rightfully be considered a serious achievement of Ankara’s foreign policy in the Mediterranean, since it provides Turkey with an advantage in the exploitation and transportation of marine energy resources.

In turn, Greece made attempts to attract (with the support of other European countries) and strengthen ties with those countries of the region that had cold relations with Ankara, including Egypt, Israel and the United Arab Emirates. Greece is deepening cooperation with these countries in the military, energy and economic sectors. The countries also conduct joint exercises in the Mediterranean Sea.

In addition, Athens signed an agreement with the governments of the Greek part of Cyprus and Israel on the implementation of the EuroAsia Interconnector project, which already has Egypt as one of its members. The project is expected to connect the energy grids of the participating countries using underwater power lines. But, of course, the ultimate goal of the project is to create an anti-Turkish coalition of the regional states. In particular, the worsening of Turkey's relations with Israel and Egypt over the past ten years is in the interests of Greece.

In turn, Ankara is trying to improve relations with Tel Aviv and Cairo. It is expected that Turkey will restore relations with Egypt and take serious steps to gain Israel's former friendliness.

European footprint

Admittedly, the key factor of the confrontation between Turkey and Greece is still Europe, which continues to play a special role in relations between the two Mediterranean states for the last 200 years after Greece gained independence from the Ottoman Empire. And now we can see the extreme right-wing political forces in Europe behind the tense relations between Ankara and Athens.

On the other hand, Greek politicians are not shy of populist tricks telling all sorts of tales about an "external enemy" (hinting at Turkey, of course). They try to maintain a favourable degree of sentiments in the Greek society that has been pretty exhausted in recent years by a wave of economic crises. It is enough to look at the headlines of the Greek media, which is full of news almost daily about the rising prices of vegetables in Turkey or the fall of the Turkish lira exchange rate, pushing local socio-political problems into the background. The unexpected criticism of Turkey from the Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, which the Greek media described as a "historic victory", was made in order to calm down the internal political atmosphere in the country. This is not surprising, given that the growing global bias towards the ultra-right in recent years has boosted populist political appeals.

Obviously, in contrast to internal politics, international diplomacy is more realistic and avoids populism. Everyone understands that it is necessary to take steps to eliminate the consequences of yet another "traumatic incident" in relations between the two countries. But it does not seem to be an easy task given the recent events.