Recently, Turkey has attempted to raise the issue of the militarization of the Aegean islands by Greece, arguing that it is illegal and is violating the Peace Treaties of Lausanne (1923) and Paris (1947).

But it is not only the verbal protests and complaints against Greece, which have officially been answered many times to date by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs. By using the pro-government media, Ankara methodically creates prepares the Turkish public opinion for military intervention in order to…disarm the Greek islands.

Through publications in the print and electronic press, Turkey is no longer presented as a country that was “wronged” in 1923 and 1947 after the islands of the NE Aegean and Dodecanese were given to Greece, but that today Turkey is endangered by their militarization by Greece, without -of course- mentioning and explaining why this is happening…

In this context, the pro-government Yeni Safak newspaper, considered the main promoter of Turkey’s fake news, continues to publish statements by Turkish “experts” on the issue of the militarization of the Aegean islands by Greece. Provocatively the newspaper reaches the point of threatening our country even with a military invasion in order to “restore” the supposed “legitimacy”.

Thus in Thursday’s article the title is: “Armed Islands: Turkey can set a time limit. If Greece does not take a step, then the right to legal defense is born”.

“The latest military tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean have once again raised the issue of the islands that Greece has equipped since 1960. According to international law(sic), islands with a military status and should be demilitarized are a threat to Turkey’s national security”, the report said, citing a Turkish professor of international law who said that if Greece did not demilitarize the islands, Turkey has the right to “self-defense”, even with a military operation against Greece.

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International law professor Selami Kuran says Turkey can take some steps in this regard and says: “A formal deadline must be given for the disarmament of these islands. This deadline is determined by the state. If after the deadline, Greece does not take the necessary steps to return to the islands to the demilitarized status, then Turkey, under Article 51 of the UN Charter, may raise the issue of the legal right of defense due to a direct threat of its security”, writes Yeni Safak.

The Greek position and answer

In the face of the Turkish provocations, Greece, like any other sovereign state in the world, can not relinquish its natural and legal right to defense in the event of a threat against its islands or any other part of its territory, especially at a time when Turkey, in blatant violation of the United Nations Charter, is threatening it with war (casus belli) if it exercises a legitimate and sovereign right granted to it by international law.

In addition to the threat of war, Turkey:

• – Invaded Cyprus in 1974, in violation of the provisions of the Guarantee Treaty for Cyprus, to which Greece is a party, and, despite numerous decisions by the Security Council and the UN General Assembly, continues to maintain significant military forces in the occupied territories.

• – It systematically violates the Greek national airspace and flyes over of Greek Aegean islands, a fact that is of particular importance in terms of security issues.

• – During the last decades, it maintains important military units with air means and amphibious vessels in areas of the Asia Minor coast, located opposite the Greek islands, a fact that poses a serious and direct threat to Greece.

The above-mentioned situation, combined with the threat of war and the general revisionist tendency of Turkey regarding the territorial and legal status of the Greek islands as defined by the international treaties and the international law in general, obliges and legitimizes Greece to proceed to all necessary defense preparation that will allow it to exercise, if necessary, the right of legal defense, provided by Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations and to protect the Greek islands.