The Turkish political establishment is raising the provocative nationalistic rhetoric once more, with both President Recep Erdigan and the leader of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), Kemal Kilicdaroglou adopting extremely belligerent tones against Cyprus and Greece. Following his remarks of a possible revision of the Lausanne Treaty, which had settled the borders between Greece and Turkey in 1923, and speeches indirectly disputing the sovereignty of Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city in the north, Erdogan unleashed a new hostile rant against Greece, and in the wake of the collapse in negotiations on the Cypriot problem in Switzerland, effectively denied the right of Cyprus to exist as a state or even have a national flag! “They tell us ‘you give Cyprus to us’ and do not mingle in anything’. That is their goal. Wait a minute. Turkish blood has been spilt on those lands. What should we give up?”, Erdogan commented on the break down of talks between the Cypriot democracy and the northern Turkish part of the island, which is not recognised by any international body or state, besides Turkey. The Turkish President went on to dispute the right of the legitimate government of Cyprus and member of the UN and the EU to actually attend EU meetings using its flag!

Not to be outdone, the leader of the conservative party CHP, Kemal Kilicdaroglou disputed the status quo of 18 Greek isles in the Aegean Sea. Addressing the country’s PM, Binali Yildirim in parliament Kilicdaroglou asked whether the Turkish military would “retake” the isles. “Are these isles ours? Yes says the Turkish government. Our Turkish flag should be lifted there. But their is also a Greek flag. Why aren’t you intervening?”, he wondered.