The European Tribune is a forum for thoughtful dialogue of European and international issues. You are invited to post comments and your own articles.
Please REGISTER to post.
I am certainly not of a mind to go back to old grievances.
I would point out however that the grievances in this case are freshly laid out and not from bad memories. Most Greeks accept that Allied overreach at end of WW2 triggered the population exchanges, and Greece was part of that overreach. The flip side was what happened in 1915 prior to the Allied invasion of Turkey. Subsequently, the Istanbul pogrom and Cyprus caused more bad feelings.
But there's something really serious going on currently as well, and it dates back from 1922. Turkey entered a peace agreement it didn't like with the allies, and it ceded the Dodecanese and some Sporades islands to Italy. Italy, after its failed invasion of Greece, ceded these to Greece. Turkey has never been happy about that, and it maintains a casus belli against Greece. Turkey threatens war if Greece assumes its international rights in taking complete possession of these islands. Greece has offered to Turkey to take these grievances to international court, but the Turks do not like the initial treaty in the first place.
In other words, Turkey and Greece have a living treaty dispute which may be all the more dangerous because of constant talk of drilling for gas and oil in the disputed territory.
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 18
by Oui - Jan 21
by gmoke - Jan 18
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 15 2 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 8 9 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Dec 31 8 comments
by gmoke - Dec 29
by Oui - Jan 22
by Oui - Jan 20
by Oui - Jan 1921 comments
by Oui - Jan 18
by Oui - Jan 17
by Oui - Jan 175 comments
by Oui - Jan 166 comments
by Oui - Jan 1513 comments
by Frank Schnittger - Jan 152 comments
by Oui - Jan 149 comments
by Oui - Jan 142 comments
by Oui - Jan 133 comments
by Oui - Jan 131 comment
by Oui - Jan 126 comments
by Oui - Jan 103 comments
by Oui - Jan 92 comments