Turkish President Recep Erdogan once more revealed his expansionist “Neo-Ottoman” vision, during a provocative speech in the north-eastern region of Rize. Addressing a number of issues linked to the Turkish involvement in surrounding conflict regions, including Syria and Iraq, Erdogan made reference to the “borders of our heart”, presenting his understanding of contiguous borders of other countries that he claimed were historically tied to Turkey. In an excerpt of his megalomaniacal speech, Erdogan went so far as to say that in their minds, Turks could not separate Andrianoplis from Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city! “We express our respect to the geographical borders of nations, but we cannot mark borders on our hearts”, he noted. In his speech, the Turkish President brought up the borders of countries spanning from Thrace and the Balkans to north Africa, western Europe and the Caucus regions, adding that “Turkey is not only Turkey”. “Except the 79 million Turkish citizens, Turkey has a responsibility to hundreds of millions of brothers in geographic areas connected with us culturally and historically”, he underlined. His speech caused a strong reaction by the Greek Foreign Ministry, which released a statement pointing out that Thrace was Greek and “any other thought is dangerous and unacceptable”. The statement called the Turkish President to order, claiming his inflammatory speech “undermined regional stability”. “The public stirring of historical, and especially border disputes, that have been irrevocably and definitively settled in the Lausanne Treaty by laying down an objective and binding status quo for all, is provocative and undermines the regional stability”, the statement read. The Ministry went on to say that the respect of International Law and Treaties warranted the voicing of responsible views detached from outdated revisionisms.