Short before the crisis with the Netherlands broke out, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusloglu attacked Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos. He is a member of a “racist party” Cavusoglu said on Friday and warned Greece of an “accident” in the Aegean Sea.
Speaking at CNN-Turk, Cavusoglu claimed that it is not him creating tension in the Aegean Sea and the islet of Imia but the Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos. Asked whether there was risk of an “accident” given the tension about the Imia islet, Cavusoglu said:
“We do not want it but we have often warned… warned tension. It is this Defense minister of the racist party causing everything.”
He added that “if our soldiers were not calm given the many challenges, the accident would have happened already.”
Exploratory talks between Greece and Turkey continue as usual, Cavusoglu added.
In recent weeks Ankara has sharply increased its provocations and open threats against Greece and even threatened to shoot down helicopters with the Greek Defense Minister on board. End of January, Ankara sent a boat full with the top brass of the Turkish Armed Forces to pay a visit to the Greek islet of Imia without previous obtaining a permission – Not that the Greeks would have given them one…
Defense Minister Panos Kammenos is leader of Independent Greeks (ANEL) Tsipras’ junior coalition government party. ANEL is a national-conservative, right-wing and anti-austerity political party. Panos Kammenos was member of conservative center-right New Democracy and MP since 1993. He was expelled from ND in 2012, when he refused to vote in favor of another austerity measures package. He shifted his anti-austerity position in the same time as left-wing SYRIZA in the grace of creditors’ pressure in 2015.
Meanwhile, not only Greece but also the European countries have learned by heart the Turkish rhetoric.
In Ankara’s hyperbole, – and given the internal political landscape- a nationalist is also a racist, a Nazi is everyone who does not comply with Turkey’s demands, while a democrat and defender of human rights is a terrorism supporter.
One of the female Turkish officers that were participating in this top brass Imiapeshit got later arrested for being Feto!