Is your power only enough for lieutenants?

When Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias challenged Turkey from the island of Meis, which is right on our doorstep, in the middle of this month, AKP Spokesperson Ömer Çelik claimed that Dendias was not targeting Turkey, but his own Prime Minister Mitsotakis, who "opened the door to dialogue," and said, "His words cannot reach us before drowning in the Aegean Sea... Provocateurs like Dendias should not be given any platform."

What happened in the week following these words from Çelik?

A Greek Coast Guard boat entered the bay in Bodrum's Akyarlar neighborhood on September 20 under the pretext of chasing a migrant smuggler... On September 23, a masked person who got off another boat that came to the Datça bay took a zodiac boat that was on land and left...

It was a huge disgrace. It was expected that the "national and local government" would stand up and at least issue a note to Greece.

What chance is there of that? It was announced that Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya had a phone conversation with Greek Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy Christos Stylianides, in which he "expressed discomfort over the violation of our territorial waters by Greek Coast Guard boats and stated that such violations are unacceptable for the preservation of good neighborly relations." During the call, it was announced that the Greek Minister stated that "importance is attached to neighborly relations between the two countries, the incident has no political aspect, the violations will not be repeated, an investigation has been launched immediately regarding the matter, and Turkish authorities will be informed of the developments."

HAS GREECE LAUNCHED AN INVESTIGATION?

Now let's look at the Greek side's statement. The Ministry stated that while Minister Stylianidis was in China, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya called late at night and noted the following:

"Mr. Stylianidis and Yerlikaya spoke in a positive atmosphere. They confirmed that the two sides are cooperating well on the management of migration flows, and in particular, the good cooperation between the Greek and Turkish coast guard forces. Regarding the incident in Halicarnassus [Bodrum], they agreed that similar incidents that could create a wrong impression should not occur."

Is there any information here that "the Greek side has immediately launched an investigation and will inform the Turkish authorities of the developments"?

Minister Ali Yerlikaya must not have been at ease either, as he went to the Coast Guard Command's Operations Center the next day to inspect "the work and the measures taken for the security of our territorial waters" on-site, and shared a post stating, "Just like every inch of our land homeland, every drop of our Blue Homeland is sacred. Behaviors aimed at violating our territorial waters are unacceptable for the preservation of good neighborly relations."

Whatever effect (!) the meeting with the Greek Minister and this post had; on the same day, Greek Coast Guard elements harassed a fishing boat hunting in Bodrum by firing into the air. Fortunately, this time a Coast Guard ship and boat were sent to the region and the Greek element was repelled.

After all this happened, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sources, who finally spoke up, stated that the allegations that the necessary initiatives were not taken following Greece's violations of our territorial waters do not reflect the truth, and that our reaction was "conveyed to the Greek authorities at every level and in the strongest possible way."

Since the Ambassador to Ankara was not summoned to the Ministry and no note was given to him, that "strong" reaction must have been shouting at Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis or Prime Minister Mitsotakis on the phone; but we haven't heard of such a thing either!..

GREEK BOATS TO TURKEY, ORUÇ REİS TO SOMALIA

Let's end this section with a joke-like piece of news.

While Greek boats come to Bodrum and Datça as they please, do you know what kind of good news (!) Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Alparslan Bayraktar gave?

He announced that our ship Oruç Reis will go to Somalia in October to conduct seismic research.

You know, our Oruç Reis, which was assigned to operate in the Eastern Mediterranean in 2020, but which Erdoğan withdrew to "ease the hand" of then-German Chancellor Merkel following pressure from the EU and Merkel's mediation; and which was subsequently docked at the Port of Antalya!..

IS ANKARA NOW MAKING A MOVE ON THE UN LAW OF THE SEA?

Let's move on to the signs of an important development regarding our country during Erdoğan's US visit, which had Israel-Gaza as its main theme.

For sixty years, Greece has been claiming that there is no problem between the two countries other than the continental shelf and Exclusive Economic Zone boundaries, and singing the song that this can be solved with "international law." The EU and the US are also accompanying this song.

What they mean by "international law" is the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Turkey resists signing because it is against our interests.

It was the beginning of September; Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis reiterated that Turkey's Blue Homeland policy continues to pose a problem and emphasized that he would tell this to Erdoğan once again.

As for the contacts in New York;

Erdoğan said the following word for word in his speech at the UN General Assembly on September 24:

"We want to see the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean as a region of stability and prosperity where the legitimate interests of all relevant parties are respected. Developing cooperation, especially on issues such as the delimitation of maritime jurisdiction areas according to international law, freedom of navigation and safety, and maritime trade, is in the common interest of the entire region."

On the same day, he met with Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis. Mitsotakis made the following statement to CNN regarding the meeting:

"I think it is very important to have open channels of communication; so that on points where we disagree - and we do disagree on issues like the delimitation of maritime zones - we can do this by first agreeing that the issue can only be resolved by referring to International Law, and we can work together on issues like migration. We have made progress in addressing this problem."

Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis also provided the information that "The two leaders tasked their Foreign Ministers to assess whether the conditions are favorable to begin negotiations to determine the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone boundaries."

We touched upon what this sign of a move means above. Let's explain it with a concrete example.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who attended a ceremony held on the island of Leros opposite Bodrum the other day, challenged us this time as follows:

"Leros and all of them, I repeat, all the islands of the Dodecanese have rights to a continental shelf, EEZ, and territorial waters up to 12 miles; just as the international Law of the Sea Convention provides, they have rights as it binds everyone, even countries that have not signed it."

GREECE'S F-35 CLAIM WAS NOT ASKED

Finally, let's examine the developments regarding the F-35s that the US has officially seized. The subject is not directly related to Greece, but we are experiencing a situation like "get the news from Greece."

Namely; at the beginning of September, the Greek media claimed that Turkey would hand over the keys to the S-400s to the US in order to get the F-35s.

The claim in question also came to the agenda while Erdoğan was in the US. This time, it was reported that the US made an offer to Turkey to keep the S-400s under its own control at Incirlik and that negotiations on the matter were at an advanced stage.

A US journalist asked Erdoğan in New York whether there was any development regarding the F-35 program. Erdoğan sufficed by saying, "There is no development at the moment."

The other day, the journalists accompanying him on the return journey finally sufficed by asking Erdoğan, in addition to his expectations regarding the presidential election results in the US, "For example, could there be a return to the F-35 program?"

After expressing his wish that "the newcomer does not make us miss the predecessor," Erdoğan replied:

"We did not experience the F-35 issue only during Mr. Donald Trump's term, it continued afterwards as well. They all caused us this disappointment. The Republicans caused it, the Democrats caused it... Now we will see whether this will continue in the new process. We have a receivable of 1 billion 450 million dollars. This is not a small figure. Now we will continue to take our steps to collect this receivable."

Pay attention; not one of those journalists asked, or was able to ask, whether the US had made an offer to lock the S-400s at Incirlik, or about these developments regarding Greece.

THE MOST WEIGHTY QUESTION (!)

But whoever that journalist was, they asked the following weighty question about the lieutenants who drew their swords after the graduation ceremony and said, "We are the soldiers of Mustafa Kemal":

"After July 15, you took very important steps regarding civil-military relations, especially the democratic transformation of the armed forces, but it seems that a second-stage reform is clearly needed after the recent sword-drawing incident in Ankara. Will you take any measures at this point?"

And Erdoğan thundered:

"Whoever is involved in this, we will ensure that they receive the punishment they deserve. This is not a playground where the ignorant can run wild. We certainly cannot leave our country to a field where these ignorant people run wild. We will take our steps accordingly."

What can be said about the fact that while the 10-million-strong Greece is ignored as it runs wild in our territorial waters after the islands, the government and its media are chasing after the lieutenants?!