The doctrine of the “Blue Homeland” as a central pre-election narrative is introduced by Tayyip Erdogan with a TV spot that shows almost all of the Greek islands of the Eastern Aegean under Turkish occupation.
Yüreklerde 100 yıllık cumhuriyet sevdasıyla şimdi asalım bayrakları. 23 Nisan Ulusal Egemenlik ve Çocuk Bayramı kutlu olsun. #şimdiasınbayrakları pic.twitter.com/ZQygxfJHb2
— AK Parti (@Akparti) April 22, 2023
The islands of Lesbos, Chios, Samos, Kos as well as western Thrace appear under the Turkish crescent in a pre-election spot of Erdogan’s AKP party.
The 108-second ad, which features the Turkish flag, was uploaded on AKP’s social media to mark “National Sovereignty Day and Children’s Day” which is a national holiday for Turkey. The anniversary was established by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk as the Turkish National Assembly was founded on April 23, 1920, which is a symbol of Turkey’s national sovereignty and which was dedicated by the Turkish leader to children.
At the same time, Athens is sending a message to Ankara that it will not allow the internal Turkish political confrontation to turn into a public dialogue between Greece and Turkey.
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Specifically, the representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Giorgos Arnaoutis, stated that “Our positions are known. Our difference is just one. We will not allow the internal political confrontation in Turkey to turn into a public dialogue between Greece and Turkey”.
Mr. Arnaoutis’ position came in response to Cavusoglu’s statements on the Turkish television network “TV100” in which he brought back the agenda of questioning Greek islands, arguing that “there are islets and rocky islets that we rightly say are ours. Their sovereignty has not been determined”, while at the same time justifying the violations of Greek airspace.
At the same time, the Turkish Foreign Minister did not rule out the return of tension between Greece and Turkey.
“They (Greece) have an election a week after us, and we’ve come to an agreement to sit down again in a more honest basis to discuss how we’re going to solve these problems. But tomorrow there may be some tension”, he said in order to simultaneously express his annoyance that Greek officials commemorated the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide.
