The US Prefers Greece

Everybody knows that Greece’s audacity to treat Turkey in an aggressive and pompous manner is inspired by the U.S. and the E.U., that both exploit Turkey using the threat of sanctions, and that Turkey has tried to improve its relations with the U.S. and the E.U. to be relieved of this pressure, and has taken conciliatory steps toward this goal.

The New US Strategy

The U.S. wants to constrain Russia and encircle China by shifting the center of its strategic weight to the Asia-Pacific region. While encircling the East with its allies from the North Pacific and Indian oceans, the U.S. intends to achieve this in the West using Eastern Europe, the Black Sea and the Turkic republics.

By making strong reinforcements in Romania, Bulgaria and Poland in Eastern Europe, the U.S. is establishing new systems and trying to pull Ukraine and Georgia into its orbit.

Greece Instead of Turkey

I touched upon this subject in my article entitled “America’s Quest for a NATO without Turkey.” Now the subject has become clearer.

Turkey, which supplies vital activity in the Black Sea, is a key country for relations with the other Turkic republics. However, both Turkey’s rapprochement with Russia and concerns for its own strength and interests hinder the U.S.’ implementation of its new strategy. Put another way, Turkey is spoiling America’s game. In order to construct the game, the U.S. wants to pressure Turkey by using NATO’s new members for this objective.

The U.S. is looking to use Bulgaria and Romania’s NATO membership to its own advantage in the Black Sea. NATO’s new situation has weakened Turkey’s role in securing NATO’s southern flank. Furthermore, the Montreux Convention makes the U.S. uneasy. For these reasons, the U.S. has moved closer to Greece to obtain sea and air bases in Crete, and has established a base at Dedeağaç (Alexandroupoli). In addition, the U.S. has settled in Greece by maintaining de-facto military power in these two areas.

The U.S., while providing military equipment directly to Greece, also promotes its procurement of warships, boats, military equipment and systems from Europe. In addition, Greece and the U.S. are amending the Defense Cooperation Agreement to provide Greece with additional capabilities and interests.

The U.S. has characterized Greece as the country with which it has the best military relations in Europe and with whom it can ensure stability in the Eastern Mediterranean; the U.S. secretary of state supposedly called Turkey a “so-called ally;” the Greek defense minister also said that relations will be better with Biden.

It appears that the U.S., thinking it cannot bring Turkey into its orbit, is planning on centering and strengthening Greece for its own interests to pressure Russia in the Black Sea by bypassing the Bosporus Straits and getting rid of the Montreux conditions.

The Problem Is Not Just the S-400

In Greece and in formerly-Soviet NATO countries, there were the S-300s with no problems; the secrets of the F-35 were not revealed until today. The S-400 is the latest version of this. This means that the problem is not with the S-400, but with Turkey forging an alliance with Russia. The British ambassador to Turkey reflected this general mood by saying, “We very much hope that Turkey will in the future look to its NATO allies, […] not to Russia.”

An important aspect of the problem is the idea of being active in Montreux and, therefore, in the Black Sea. This also disturbs Russia. It is natural for Russia to take precautions based on this. In this situation, preserving the Montreux Convention is a common concern for both Turkey and Russia.

Striking a Balance Is Necessary

Turkey is not as comfortable as other NATO countries. On one the hand, Turkey is required to defend its rights in the Eastern Mediterranean, Aegean and “Blue Nation” waters; on the other, it has to struggle with security and survival issues. For this reason, Turkey has to follow a balanced policy between the U.S. and Russia.

The Montreux Convention is the addendum to the Treaty of Lausanne that ensures Turkey’s sovereignty. Turkey should absolutely not tolerate the erosion of the vital Montreux Convention. We should understand that the Biden administration opening debates on diminishing the Lausanne Treaty, Turkey’s insurer of national sovereignty, is incredibly unnecessary, wrong and against us.

We cannot get anywhere conceding our interests and rights, which are based in international law. We hope that what has been done is a distraction within this tactical approach.