The old hostilities between two key
members of Nato are flaring up again,
said Barin Kayaoglu on Al-Monitor
(Washington DC). The animosity
between Greece and Turkey reached
a crescendo over Cyprus in the 1970s,
but the two nations put enmity aside
when both were hit by devastating
earthquakes in 1999. After the 2008
financial crisis, Turkish leaders even
talked of helping Greece with its
bailout. Sadly, the decision last week
by the Greek Supreme Court to block
extradition of eight Turkish army
officers – they had fled to Greece after
last July’s botched coup against Turkey’s President Erdogan –
has ripped open old wounds. Greek PM Alexis Tsipras hadn’t
wanted this: he had promised that the officers would be
returned. But despite a slew of legal appeals by Turkey, the
court ruled that the men wouldn’t get a fair trial if sent back.
Erdogan made his fury at this known last weekend by sending a
Turkish warship into Greek waters, with army chief Hulusi
Akar on board. And he made sure that images of the
provocation were splashed across the media.
“Is this how a civilised country behaves?” I think not, said Ilnur
Çevik in Daily Sabah (Istanbul). Tsipras – who desperately needs
Turkey’s help to stop Syrian refugees flooding into Greece – had
apparently contemplated defying the
court by handing the officers over days
before its ruling. But he was got at by
the powerful “anti-Turkish lobby” in
Europe, led by Germany. The court’s
decision may have been “politically
costly” to Tsipras, said Ivo Mijnssen
in Neue Zürcher Zeitung (Zurich),
but it was absolutely correct. Given
Erdogan’s “witch-hunt” against coup
plotters, real and imagined, there could
be no guarantee that the soldiers would
get due legal process. They could have
been tortured, as many (including
those who had nothing to do with the
coup) seem to have been. At least Greece will now get credit in
Europe for standing up for the rule of law.
We can be sure Turkey’s “sultan” will stop at nothing to get
retribution, said Andreas Stassinos on Protagon.gr (Athens). At
this very moment, Turkish intelligence agents could be in Greece
planning to kidnap the officers, or make them “disappear”. The
worry is that Greek security services will secretly help them – as
they reportedly did back in 1999, when Turkish agents grabbed
the Kurdish military leader Abdullah Ocalan as he was being
transferred from the Greek Embassy in Kenya. That must not be
allowed to happen. For better or worse, Greece has adopted the
fugitives: their safety is now “a test of our national dignity”.
