On 22nd November 2020, morning hours, German Sachsen Class (Type 124) multi-purpose frigate Hamburg operating under the tactical command of Greek Commodore T Micropoulos, in the EU-led Operation Irini has interrogated the Turkish container vessel MV Roseline-A carrying food and paint supplies to Libya in the area 100 miles off the Benghazi Coast. The ship had departed from Istanbul to ...
The Eastern Mediterranean has become one of the frontlines in the ongoing geopolitical polarization. This polarization in the region is not only between Turkey and Greece: the conflict is mainly taking place between the Eurasian and the Atlantic camps. Greece is little more than a pawn of that camp. On the anti-Turkish front, the major powers of the Atlantic camp ...
The tension that escalated in the wake of the seismic/drilling activities conducted by Turkey within its legal maritime jurisdiction in Eastern Mediterranean was a part of broader problems resulting from Greece’s efforts to increase its territorial waters. While a possible Turkish-Greek war became an alarming possibility as a result of mutual NAVTEXes, multinational exercises, and fortifications on the islands and ...
Although the West defines Turkey’s reconnection to the open seas ‘Neo-Ottomanism’, Turkey’s Blue Homeland Doctrine is a 21st century geopolitical reality originally outlined by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as a survival necessity for the democratic, secular republic whose borders are drawn in accordance with the universal law of the sea and reinforced by state practices. “The seas are an inexhaustible supply ...
October has regularly been a month of important events in Turkish history. This month reminds us of such events as the Armistice of Mudanya (October 11th 1922) and the Proclamation of the Turkish Republic (October 29th 1923), filling us with pride– but it is also a month of grief and misfortune as well. There are many examples of these events. ...
The Turkish Defense Ministry announced that the United Nations (UN) has registered a memorandum between Turkey and Libya on the demarcation of maritime borders. “The agreement determining maritime jurisdiction areas between Turkey and Libya was registered by the UN. Our multi-faceted relationship with Libya based on a common history of 500 years and our training, assistance and consultancy support to ...
French President Emmanuel Macron swore he would help build tensions between Greece and Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean. He is actively arming the Greek army against Turkey, sending air and sea forces to disputed areas and even mobilized an aircraft carrier – the great Charles de Gaulle. But why exactly? Perhaps the French President cannot stand Turkey’s Erdoğan and wants ...
Let us begin with an excerpt from an article dated May 5, 2020 by the former director of STRATFOR, an American Think Tank, George Friedman. In his article titled ‘Power and the Rise and Fall of Nations’, Friedman wrote: “The public perception of power is rooted in events that might have little to do with power. The reality of power ...
On May 12, 2020, the US Ambassador to Nicosia, Judith Garber, visited the Commander of the Greek National Guard Army (GNG), Lieutenant General Democritus Zervakis, in Cyprus. Before her departure, the pair posed in front of a wall painting of Kyrenia (Girne) in his office. It was an interesting sight. The president of the Board of Directors of BAU Cyprus ...
In the context of the ongoing geopolitical competition in the Eastern Mediterranean, the two central concepts constantly emphasized by Turkey’s opponents (especially in Greek and FETO controlled media) are revisionism (a stark reversal of the current geopolitical conditions) and Neo-Ottomanism. The Blue Homeland, my brainchild, is often lumped into the same category with these ideologies, especially after the Memoranda of Understanding ...