Turkey's Main Opposition Party Threatens To "Come And Take Back 18 Islands Owned By Greece"

Tyler Durden's picture

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition party Republican People’s Party (CHP),  Kemal Kilicdaroglu, threatened to come and take back a total of 18 islands occupied by Greece.

No worries. The leader of Kemalist CHP will not come in the next days, weeks or months. He will come in 2019, after his party will win the general elections of Turkey scheduled to take place in the same year.

As KeepTalkingGreece.com reports, lashing out at the Greek defense minister’s remarks on the Aegean islands who a few days ago told Turkey "Molon Labe " - meaning “come and take [them]” is a classical expression of defiance. According to Plutarch, Xerxes I, king of the Achaemenid Empire, demanded that the Spartans surrender their weapons and King Leonidas I responded with this phrase. It is an exemplary use of a laconic phrase - Kilicdaroglu said speaking at a party event in the northwestern province of Kocaeli...

“The Greek Defense minister says ‘Come and get it.’ I will come and take all of those islands back.

 

Why am I saying this? They said ‘Come and get it’ for Cyprus back in the day. What did Ecevit (former prime minister) do? He went there and took it back,” 

The debate over the Aegean islands sparked when the CHP leader criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Dec. 11 over his failure to raise the issue of “18 occupied islands” during his visit to the country.

“Why did not you talk about 18 occupied islands? Article 12 and Article 18 of the Lausanne Treaty were clearly violated. There are 13,000 military units and nearly 5,000 Greek troops on the islands,” Kiliçdaroglu said.

The question is - what will Merkel do?

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shitshitshit's picture

Vladimir Putin invested in popcorn factories in Russia. 

Yugoswede in Sweden's picture

NATO-member attacking another NATO-country makes me happy :D

Ghordius's picture

because you are a Serbian that has a grudge versus NATO, isn't it? while not caring about details of your own history, of course

well, since you are in Sweden, note how Swedes are discussing joining NATO or not. and the reason is... not you

wake up. that huge military base in Kosovo isn't a NATO base

fx's picture

Every sensible human being in the world has a grudge versus NATO - because it is one of the most evil and aggressive military alliances that have ever been built on this planet. Bombing Yugoslavia, breaking away the Kosovo (till date there wasn't even a referendum asking the people over there!), murdering countless people in Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan - all purely attacking wars, no defensive action whatsoever.

Nato's military spending is about 70% of that of the entire world. The declared or potential enemies (i.e. Russia, China and all the "rogue states") combined spend less than one tenth of that - all taken together! So yeah, it is for "defence". one outspends all potential enemies by an order of magnitude, and starting from a much larger base anyway. And they now want to spend even more! Well, I guess, just to be on the safee side. Especially needed: Offensive nuclear capabilities, asymmetric warfare causing regime changes in any country chosen, cyber warfare and, above all,  "missile shields". After all, one has to make sure that no Chinese or Russian counter-strike could harm the NATO members, once they unleash the great "preemptive" nuclear war to establish "democracy" and freedom" everywhere - the American or Brussels police state style of democracy, that is.

 

And they keep building up ever more troups and bases around Russia with the sole aim to attack it or force into obedience. Yeah, that is your beloved NATO. The military arm of your even more beloved "Euro" , the common enslavement currency of the Brussels dictatorship.

And now, your turn, to hail NATO, Draghi, the fucking C!A and all the rest of the deep shit and all the other assholes that you are so fond of worshipping.

Ghordius's picture

did you read the article? two reasons there: Turkey and Greece

fx's picture

Haha, seriously? Nato is there to prevent war between turkey and Greece?

 

LOL! At least now we know why NATO:

 

1) accounts for 70% of all money spent worldwide on military

2) builds military bases and missile shields around China and Russia and increases number of troups and tanks right next to russia's borders on a monthly basis

3) bombs civilians in Afghanistan,. Libya, Iraq, Somalia, Syria...

4) wants to spend even more money on weapons...

 

It's all about preventing a war between Greece and Turkey! Thanks for explaining this brave new NATO-world to us dummies, Ghordius.

...LOL

Ghordius's picture

what part of "wake up. that huge military base in Kosovo isn't a NATO base" did you not read?

fx's picture

Ghordius, in what part of my comment did I even touch upon that military base in Kosovo, not to speak of claiming anything about it?

Of course, you have to put up straw men for lack of arguments.

 

 

LiteBeeer's picture

The opposition tries any angle to get a grip on Erdo.

Else the turkish arabised sheeple will not wake up ever.

BobEore's picture

BB's on special assignment today - to the Easter Islands... where, apparently there's been some restlessness on the part of the natives....

something to do with a "Captain Cook" as I understand it. I'll fill in.

If peeple we call zheeple wish to understand this post... here's what you  need to know..

  1. CHP is "Ataturks" party. The original, secularist republican party, which turned out to be not so... 'secularist' after all, after an 18 month campaign in 1937 to turn the ZaZA Alevi Kurds of Dersim into either - "Mountain Turks," or... "Carrion Feed"... on account of their stubborn refusal to adopt "Muslim Turkish Values"...
  2. CHP is now the party of choice for secularists... minorities like the Alevis, Kurds(not aligned with the HDP)and left-leaning Turks.Which makes no sense at all... unless you live in Turkey and understand why nothing makes any sense at all.
  3. That constellation of interest groups will NEVER be strong enough to get CHP elected or the AKP out... so the bellicose rants on the part of it's ineffective leader are an attempt to widen it's appeal to "nationalist" voters who are now splitting between the "Grey Wolves" of MHP, and the 'Grey Wolves Lite' of the recently formed party headed by a female nationalist figure. Chances of success for either - 0.
  4. The Greeks have now fully surrenderd sovereignty to tel aviv, and are expecting to be getting the benefit of that ignoble arrangment thru the now beginning stages of the Leviathan/Cyrpus/Italy pipeline designed to run gas to Europe.. and completely circumvent Turkey...as the opening bell in the new URRASSIAN ENERGY CARTEL which NO ONE WISHES to know about.... and...
  5. which was promised a similar 'sclusive' such arrangment when THEY surrendered sovereignty to the new Russo-Talmudic masters  in June of 2016.
  6. Proving that a)no one ever learns from watching what happens in their neighborhood here b)Srael can pretty much get away with ANYTHING it wants to...c)medias cannot report real news about real events ... because they are too busy concocting fake news about made up events and stage performances.
  7. Politicians of all stripes can be counted upon to perform these types of puppet pirouettes... the press to report them... and the imprisoned proles of Gulagistan to believe whatever they are force fed by a media drip feed which has replaced real reporting.
  8. Sock puppets of all stripes gnash their teeth and mutter in their scraggly beards whenever a rogue report from real reporters breaks thru the embargo on truth in media.

Now please forget what you just read and return to your regular news channel.

OverTheHedge's picture

I freely admit to having struggled to understand some of your more recent posts, but this one seems perfectly sensible. Thank you.

anarchitect's picture

Did someone hack your account, Bob?  This post is shockingly coherent.

Golden Showers's picture

Do it.

EDIT: Haven't Turkey and Greece been at it for like 3000 plus years or some shit?

Does Troy ring any bells? Anatolia? Well, it rings a bell for me. Cyprus? No, not Cyprus Hill (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yg-RIOATCbU)

Here is something you can't understand: Greece will fuck up Turkey old school. And about time. Turks can't do shit without permission.

zerocash's picture

Anatolia used to be Greek (Byzantine) and it was only conquered by the Turks some 1000 years ago. Troy was there thousands of years before the Turks began their conquest of the Byzantine Empire.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine%E2%80%93Seljuq_wars

OverTheHedge's picture

Just like on Facebook, "it's complicated".

Things to consider: Greece population 11million, Turkey population 80 million. In a bare knuckle fight, Turkey wins.

Greeks loathe and despise Turks, after 400 years of "slavery", and a nasty little war in 1919 - 1921. This was followed by a "population exchange", more recently called "ethnic cleansing". and left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth on both sides. The Turks loathe and despise the Greeks, in part because of atrocities during the recent (almost living memory) war, but also because most of the islands that the Greeks claim are within spitting distance of the Turkish coast, were historically part of the Ottoman Empire, and because when you are taught for generations that you  were robbed of your birthright, you tend not to been keen on the alleged robbers.

So, Turkey has more tanks than Greece, will invade and beat the Greek army, because of the numbers. If NATO looks the other way, then Greece loses, but Greece has a peculiar place in western (i.e. British, French, and to some extent American) culture, so it is hard to see how NATO can not get involved. Of course, we now have an EU army, which would scramble to get some seriously necessary kudos, and would almost certainly pile in on Greece's side. The fact that there are no actual troops is neither here nor there.

The good news is that my beach is designated as the NATO landing area, when they come to retake Greece. I should have a fabulous view of the chaos. I'll post pics, if it ever happens.

LiteBeeer's picture

Greek has nothing to do with Byzantine (orthodox). Greek was an empire before the Roman empire (established 27 BC). After Jesus and 300 years persecution, Constantine chose Christianity and moved from Rome to Constantinople and they put together the bible into a single book. Roman empire (west) died at 476 AD. 62 years later, with help of Byzantine, the Papacy (catholic) is established as the successor in Rome. Ishmaelites refused to join the Pope. The Papacy needed them to conquer Jerusalem for the Pope. With help of catholic and rich widow Kadijah, they let the word that an arabic prophet was to come. Using Mohammad they united all local pagan religions under one god allah and thus islam was establiehd in 610 AD.

Islamic ottomans ended Byzantine in 1453 AD. According to Bible prophecy, the Papacy was to end in 1260 years at 1798 AD by Napoleon's General Berthier.

Ottomans were defeated by Europa and the islamic empire ended 1922 and the arabic caliphate was flushed down the pipe in 1924 by Ataturk.

As per Bible prophecy, an 8th beast would reappear after having received the deadly head wound: Vatican was established in 1929 with help of Mussolini.

Jo A-S's picture

This isn't another ruse by Erdogan to get more support, is it?  I mean, the so-called coup of 2016 was a good way for him to get rid of opposition......

Golden Showers's picture

Why wouldn't it be a ruse? It's beligerance: Turkey and Greece are in NATO as of 52, before Erdogan was born. Then there's 80 million Turks and 11 million Greeks. It sounds like political bullshit on Turkey as usual.

Turks are shit. They act stupid. Always have.

Ghordius's picture

it's a Turkish politician (of a party that is not in government) appealing to the stupidity and belligerence of some Turks

using the "good ol'" "War On..." template. ought to be recognizable

"...in NATO as of 52". I presume you mean as of 1952, not that NATO has 52 members

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Member_states_of_NATO

it's political bullshit, yes

rtb61's picture

It is more politely political theatre. The only opposition that Erdogan would allow is one that he approves and the message that Erdogan is pushing, see look the other guy is worse, accept me. Pretty amateurish though, yeah one NATO country will attack another NATO country, sure uh huh. Really dumb and the Greek politician should have shown much more political maturity and called the turk out on it. Now the Greeks look nearly as stupid, don't ever respond to stupid with stupid, the stupid wins, they have made you look stupid.

otschelnik's picture

Leonidas had 300 Spartans at Thermopyllae against the whole Persian army.

Ghordius's picture

see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Thermopylae#Greek_army

King Leonidas I had his Royal Guard of 300 Spartiates, that's correct

but Leonidas was there as general of an Allied Greek contingent. featuring a number of Spartan Hegemony allies, the Perioeci; but also MantineansTegeansArcadian Orchomenos, other ArcadiansCorinthiansPhliansMycenaeansThespiansMaliansThebansPhocians and Opuntian Locrians

the Spartan Hegemony was itself an alliance, and the whole war was mainly fought as an alliance between Sparta, Thebes, Corinth and Athens, just to name the four major cities

just as a reminder to those here that seem to be allergic to alliances: they are a feature of european history, particularly in warfare

EddieLomax's picture

Alliances are made between sovereign states, the Spartan's dd not require others to change their laws to go to war alongside them.

Here we have a classic problem of Turkey vs Greece and where the worlds main power sits, would the US sit on the sidelines or align with one of them?

If the US sits on the sidelines then Greece likely will turn to Russia, yet would Russia still court Turkey as an ally although the pair have been historial enemies?  Dropping Turkey would also be convenient since the US can champion the Kurds and piss off Turkey/Iran and Syria all at the same time (Iraq isn't a country anymore).

Then there is China, Turkey seems like just the sort of authoritarian scum the Chinese would love as an ally, the only mismatch is both of them compete in the same sort of business and Chinese Muslims are an internal security threat too.

Ghordius's picture

I don't know what you mean with:

"Alliances are made between sovereign states, the Spartan's did not require others to change their laws to go to war alongside them"

In most of history, sovereign states pass a law for a declaration of war. the same with treaties, those are laws, too, passed the same way as other laws

War is, either by Treaty=Law or by Law, straight, generally speaking always by law

hence the epitaph of the dead of Thermopylae:

"Tell the Spartans, stranger passing by,

that here obedient to their laws we lie."

that's two laws mentioned there: the one that forbids Spartiates to ever retreat in front of hostiles and the law that Sparta passed for the war

quasi_verbatim's picture

Did not Erdo say that he wanted a revision of the Treaty of Lausanne?

zebra77a's picture

Weird if Greece is totally and utterly broke - whose paying for Greece's army - Germany?

Grumbleduke's picture

they send feta, olives, oil and IOUs, Germany sends them tanks and other nice weapons. Same procedure applies to Turkey... German taxpayers pay for all of it, crying tears of joy for being "Exportweltmeister" (trade surplus only outpaced by China). Fuckers don't know anything about Target2, the ECB, ESM and other satanic 3-letter acronyms.

Happy New Year everybody!

nmewn's picture

Molon labe bitch.

GreatUncle's picture

You in a personal conversation with HRC?

dark fiber's picture

Depends on what the US wants.  It could be the bait to turn Turkey into another Iraq.  It could also be the chance for the the Greek bailout to finally end and get Greece out of the EU/Euro once and for all.  Possibilities are endless here.

EddieLomax's picture

If Turkey did go to war with Greece then it is hard to see what allies they could gain without NATO activating.

Syria would love to beat the Turks, Russia would too if it meant a Russian loving Greece opening up the black sea - the current Greeks though seem to be in some sort of sado-masochistic relationship.

Western Europe has always been useless when it comes to Turkey and China is more likely to side with Turkey.  The US is the only unaligned power, yet they desperately want to be friends with the Turks.

RabbitChow's picture

Yah Greeks and Turks fighting as it has always been.  This is something the US should stay out of.  If it's Greeks vs Turks, the Turks are nasty fighters and will not put up with any Grecian crap.  As far as taking back the islands, this is highly reminiscent of Putin taking Crimea, or even the Russo Japanese war of 1904.

LiteBeeer's picture

They are nasty because they love to die for the arabic allah.

Islam is the problem. Jesus died instead for their sins, if they would understand what that means.

falak pema's picture

Molon Labe... could be the iconic phrase in the battle between CB fiat and decentralized alt-coin...

Come n get it ! 

When Alt-coin challenges the triple cross; reminiscent of the Papal cross;  of petrodollar fed beanstawk, bond lollypop, and fracked jungle juice of buried fossil. A symbol like an iconic phrase has a tale to tell that spans the ages like a colossus of Rhodes.

We do enter the exponential age of AI and Cyborg; the return to the Titans of Prometheus.

The voice of Plutarch's tale that is the devil's tail of creative destruction.

Back to Amon Ra, the solar God, we go and his Fire is the gun of Man's new intelligence; not black gold of old Cressus & Midas.

Tales within hidden symbolic devils' tails from past mythology;  the forever living symbols of  man's convoluted history are our treasure trove.

We have to datamine the past to understand the mystery leading thru the mist to our future.

Meanwhile we in the West bury our heads in illusions of #Maga; like a Persian Achaemenid warlord; while Mutti is a  latter day Cassandra who is silent before the storm.

Rubiconsiatista's picture

Why are the Turks calling 18 Greek islands occupied? Yes...they are Greek islands with Greeks living on them for generations. They are not 18 Turkish islands occupied illegally by Greeks. They have always belonged to the Greeks...as does a good part of Western Turkey.

pascal bets's picture

This goes back to Muhammad in 7th century.  STILL FIGHTING!

zerocash's picture

The Turks have stolen a large part of what is now Turkey from the Greeks in the past hundreds of years.

LiteBeeer's picture

Turks/ Greeks/ any nationality all are all brothers through Noah. Islam is the problem.

Mimir's picture

"The question is - what will Merkel do?"

Obviously Tyler is obsessed by Merkel.

Some seriousness please, ZH !

Ghordius's picture

ZH is "fed", when it comes to european news, by many British news... "sources"

and Brits are, generally speaking, obsessed with Germany, particularly Brexiteers and the older generations (as well as with Russia, note)

further, in the "War On Islam" sources "Merkel" means, literally "one million Muslims", and there is a huge propaganda war going on to get Central/Eastern Europeans to fight Russia and "The Muslim Threat to Europe" in the name of "Judeo-Christian Values" (as known in some parts of the US, particularly Evangelical and Christian Zionists)

suggested reading of the day: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Identity and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Israelism

GreatUncle's picture

Ghordius I stopped following links for fake news everywhere.

The fake news in many cases is one perspective put upon some action when the real news is the action.

The goal of the "fake perspective part" of the news or any other propaganda is to convert you to believe in what somebody somewhere in the highest places demand you believe. I tend to glance over your comments nowadays "to much of your perspective" in them for me ... trying to rah, rah, my mind when you know full well economically everything is fucked and anybody on ZH knows this.

Fake perspective is currently being disseminated revealing the real news component, the news item is seen though currently missing from the MSM in many cases and you must then infer for yourself the true news not anybody elses. I would like to see you proof on the British sources! Once again the "hurrah the EU" for it is a fantastic place with no division or human suffering. Bullshit ... All EU politicians like my own sit on the economic wave pretending they control it but they at the same time are responsible for any/all human suffering. It used to filter down to the population through democracy but when democracy was junked it now became those that rule over us personal choice. Like Merkel mass immigration fuck up to create the situation for the AFD to grow. Her EU appointed commission personal choice for us all!

If I you Ghordius I would lay of the hysteria a bit, you ain't changing nothing, but when you shill like your government masters dictate it becomes noticeable.

 

OverTheHedge's picture

I assumed that the "What will Merkel do?" tag-line was because Greece no longer has any sovereignty, and all decisions are taken in either Frankfurt or Berlin.

Ghordius will now give me a list of points completely irrelevant to this post, as proof that the EU is working in political and democratic Shangri-La, and everything is awesome. However, if Greece is sovereign, what is the Troika for? And if Merkel doesn't have any say in Greece, why is the German Finance Minister so important to the Troika?

George Bush League's picture
Treaty of Lausanne

ARTICLE 12.

The decision taken on the 13th February, 1914, by the Conference of London, in virtue of Articles 5 of the Treaty of London of the 17th-30th May, 1913, and 15 of the Treaty of Athens of the 1st-14th November, 1913, which decision was communicated to the Greek Government on the 13th February, 1914, regarding the sovereignty of Greece over the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, other than the islands of Imbros, Tenedos and Rabbit Islands, particularly the islands of Lemnos, Samothrace, Mytilene, Chios, Samos and Nikaria, is confirmed, subject to the provisions of the present Treaty respecting the islands placed under the sovereigntyof Italy which form the subject of Article 15. 

Except where a provision to the contrary is contained in the present Treaty, the islands situated at less than three miles from the Asiatic coast remain under Turkish sovereignty.

Vageling's picture

Look mom! That kebab is making funny noises.

Wake me up when Erdogan plans it. For now he's too busy calling everyone a fascist and running his shady business.

2019? As if the little people will remember that hot air in a week from now. 

Barking Turks. What else is new.

GreatUncle's picture

Same as always another feudal dispute to shore up the "feelings" of the population when you are "economically bankrupt" even if you pretend you ain't.

We seem to have alot of this around the world right now as "2018 is really hotting up to be the year when SHTF".

Flibbertigibbet's picture

En touto nika, malakes.

Making Merica Great Again's picture

Stupid debates for stupid people. Buy bitcoin you damn fools we are still in the early phase. Let the turds fight for land!