Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan called on Greece to stop “militarising” Greek islands neighbouring Turkey and warned that Turkish military forces could come “at night”.
The threat comes after tensions between the two neighbours have become increasingly heightened in recent months.
“We can come suddenly, in the middle of the night [..] if you Greeks go too far, then the price will be heavy,” Erdoğan said in a statement seen by Athens as severe escalation.
According to the Greek Defence Ministry, Turkey has increased its violations of Greece’s airspace, especially by using drones, such as Βayraktar, which are also used in Ukraine.
Kathimerini reported that at least half of Greek airspace’s violations in 2022 involved drones.
Commenting on Erdoğan’s statement, Angelos Syrigos, a lawmaker of the ruling New Democracy party and international politics professor, said the “we will come suddenly at night” statement refers to the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
“No other leader moves at such a pace of threats for so many weeks […] Erdoğan’smessage was ‘pay attention because we are ready”, Syrigos said.
Officially, the Greek Foreign Ministry said it would not rise to the aggressive rhetoric of Ankara and made it clear that the allies in the EU and NATO would be informed, respectively.
