Greco-Turkish confrontation looming, could escalate and engulf the entire region
Posted by: John Phoenix
Deteriorating relations between Greeks and Turks are certainly nothing new. The two peoples have had on-and-off wars for over 900 years, spanning Asia Minor/Anatolia, the Aegean Sea/Eastern Mediterranean and Southeast Europe. The tensions haven’t really subsided even after both Greece and Turkey joined NATO in 1952. Just three years later, there was the Istanbul pogrom during which Ankara intentionally targeted the ancient city’s native Greeks (along with other minorities). Then there was the 1974 invasion of Cyprus that effectively resulted in an undeclared war between Greece and Turkey. The end of the (First) Cold War saw another round of escalation that reached its peak in the mid-1990s. Although agreements on demilitarization were reached at th...