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by Luis de Sousa Mon Jun 7th, 2010 at 05:50:33 AM EST
Please accept my apologies if this video has been posted already, but it is quite a compelling intervention.
While I was already aware Greece dedicated an unusual high amount of its budget to Military expenditures, these figures put forth by Daniel Cohn-Bendit are quite staggering, even shocking. One can't help felling Greece is being left on its own to the lions...
Cyprus was invaded in 1974 by Turkey, a member of Nato, and since then no one has made much about it, inspite of the adhesion of half of the island to the EU in 2003. Some background on the Aegean conflict can be found at Wikipaedia:
Aegean dispute
Cyprus dispute
There's a long way to go before the EU becomes a truly solidarian state. At least with present leaders, whom can only think about their next internal election. This is partly a problem of the Council being held by locally elected representatives and partly a problem of leadership - they simply can't think like Europeans.
Here are a few more versions of the video subtitled in other languages:
Greek
Castellan
Portuguese
German
Italian
Cyprus was invaded in 1974 by Turkey, a member of Nato, and since then no one has made much about it, inspite of the adhesion of half of the island to the EU in 2003.
Turkish invasion of Cyprus - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In the spring of 1974, Cypriot intelligence discovered that EOKA-B was planning a coup against President Makarios[25] which was sponsored by the military junta of Athens. The junta had come to power in a military coup in 1967 which was condemned by the whole of Europe but had the support of the United States. In the autumn of 1973 after the 17 November student uprising there had been a further coup in Athens in which the original Greek junta had been replaced by one still more obscurantist headed by the Chief of Military Police, Brigadier Ioannides, though the actual head of state was General Phaedon Gizikis. On 2 July 1974, Makarios wrote an open letter to President Gizikis complaining bluntly that 'cadres of the Greek military regime support and direct the activities of the 'EOKA-B' terrorist organization'. The Greek Government's immediate reply was to order the go-ahead to the conspiracy. On 15 July 1974 sections of the Cypriot National Guard, led by its Greek officers, overthrew the Government.
In the spring of 1974, Cypriot intelligence discovered that EOKA-B was planning a coup against President Makarios[25] which was sponsored by the military junta of Athens.
The junta had come to power in a military coup in 1967 which was condemned by the whole of Europe but had the support of the United States. In the autumn of 1973 after the 17 November student uprising there had been a further coup in Athens in which the original Greek junta had been replaced by one still more obscurantist headed by the Chief of Military Police, Brigadier Ioannides, though the actual head of state was General Phaedon Gizikis.
On 2 July 1974, Makarios wrote an open letter to President Gizikis complaining bluntly that 'cadres of the Greek military regime support and direct the activities of the 'EOKA-B' terrorist organization'. The Greek Government's immediate reply was to order the go-ahead to the conspiracy. On 15 July 1974 sections of the Cypriot National Guard, led by its Greek officers, overthrew the Government.
I don't doubt that Greece feels it needs this weaponry to protect against Turkey, but I do question how much they need, and I would especially note that lots of gov't officials--especially in the military--have accepted bribes from military contractors, which naturally throws any strategic military planning out the window and makes it all suspect. If Cohn-Bendit is making it seem like the Greek politicians are not a party to the fleecing of Greek citizens when it comes to military spending, he's dead wrong.
it's a lot more complicated than this. You obviously need to go into the 1950s and 1960s etc
Greek military junta of 1967-1974 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
In 1947, the United States formulated the Truman Doctrine, and began to actively support a series of authoritarian governments in Greece, Turkey and Iran, in order to ensure that these states did not fall under Soviet influence.[1] With American and British aid, the civil war ended with the military defeat of the Left in 1949. The Communist Party of Greece (KKE) was outlawed and many Communists had to either flee the country or face persecution. The CIA and the Greek military began to work closely, especially after Greece joined NATO in 1952.[citation needed] Greece was a vital link in the NATO defense arc which extended from the eastern border of Iran to the north most point in Norway. Greece in particular was seen as being in risk, having experienced a Communist insurgency. In particular, the newly-founded Hellenic National Intelligence Service (KYP) and the LOK Special Forces (later actively involved in the 1967 coup) maintained a very close liaison with their American counterparts. In addition to preparing for a Soviet invasion, they agreed to guard against a left wing coup. The LOK in particular were integrated into the Gladio European stay-behind network.[2] Although there have been persistent rumors about an active support of the perpetrators of the coup d'état by the US government there is no evidence to support such claims.[3][4] It is however likely that the US military was informed of the coup a few days in advance by Greek liaison officers.[5]
We need to go back to look at the Balkans prior to Romantic Nationalism, also the Ottoman Empire before the beginnings of dissolution, and especially Cyprus before the threat of independence arose in the 1950s.
You have people getting along really well despite ethnic and religious differences. I will not say linguistic differences, because even the peasants were polyglot back then.
Pretty sad to see people so easily turned against their own interests.
The point is that NONE of this somebody-done-somebody-wrong stuff will justify a war between Turkey and Greece, so it certainly does not justify a military standoff and an arms race. Write a song about it instead.
The Greek and Turkish dogs need to decide conjointly to stop being wagged by their tails, the career nationalists on either side of the Green Line.
Terribly insensitive of me, I know. It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
Do you bother reading what I wrote?
I said go back to the period when these peoples got along really well.
Geez, nuts to you.
I am somewhat aware of the context of Greek/Turkish issues. The subtext is clearly the massive exchanges of populations in the 1920s at the end of the Ottoman empire. Since then, both have had periods of military government, and obviously the military's stock in trade depends on keeping the sense of mutual grievance alive. My sentiment is that the populations of both countries are more than ready to turn the page on the historical grievances, but that they need to break the logjam with respect to the military's inflated sense of its own importance. This is likely to be especially problematic in the case of Turkey, since the military have a very high sense of their role as guaranteeing national sovereignty (and hold considerable economic power to boot). It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
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.
Most Greeks accept that Allied overreach at end of WW2
That would be WWI, right? Turkey wasn't a belligerent in WWII as far as I recall.
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.
Interesting. I didn't know that. Diary-worthy material, perhaps? Certainly, it would rattle some of the locally held prejudices hereabout vis-a-vis Turkey's mistreatment by the EU. And qualified prejudice-rattling can never be an entirely bad thing.
- Jake Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.
I can't do better than this wikipedia entry on the so-called "Aegean Issues:"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegean_dispute
In fact, a surprising amount of sense gets talked in the European parliament. Sadly, nobody listens, and it's all of very little consequence.
How about we take the power away from the blithering Barrosos and the evanescent Ashton Warners, and give it to our elected representatives?
That's a revolutionary idea! It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
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