Trump is one thing, but they cannot be afraid of Mitsotakis too!..

Trump is terrorizing the world, and Ankara doesn't make a peep... A man disguised as an ambassador is tailoring a suit for Turkey every single day, and they cannot say a single word to him either.

While this state of Turkey—which, in the words of AKP Spokesperson Ömer Çelik, is a “strong Balkan, Black Sea, Mediterranean, Asian, and European state”—is generally attributed to “fear,” Historian-Author Sinan Meydan offered a different approach and emphasized the following:

“True, they are afraid of Trump, but the only reason for their silence is not fear of Trump. They also think like Barrack.”

So, how should the silence in the face of a Greece of 10 million be interpreted?

It was not enough that they occupied and armed almost all of the islands in the Aegean; they joined forces with the US, EU, and Israel to surround Turkey from Cyprus to the Aegean, from Alexandroupoli to Azerbaijan. They placed Patriots on the islands of Samothrace and Karpathos.

There is nothing beyond the rhetoric of officials and Foreign Ministry bureaucrats saying, “We condemn... We do not recognize... It is null and void.”

It was their March 25 Independence Day; Greek soldiers cursed Turkey and the TRNC. A week later, the only reaction came from TBMM National Defense Commission Chairman Hulusi Akar. His reaction was as follows:

“We strongly condemn the speeches made on March 25. We return all the words and remarks made during the march in Athens back to them... Turkey is truly dignified, the Turkish soldier and Turkish politicians are dignified. We have not engaged in such low-level debates or low-level accusations, and we will not.”

Finally, they declared areas in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean where they have no jurisdiction as no-fishing zones, and the Foreign Ministry bureaucrats again deemed it “null and void”... No one spoke up against the letter sent to the UN stating, “The 12-mile limit is my right. Turkey’s 6-mile claim is a violation of international law and an attack on Greece’s territorial integrity. The regional agreements made by Turkey should be considered null and void. The TRNC is a separatist, illegal entity.”

When It Comes to Turkey’s National Pride

In recent days, when the genocidal Netanyahu and his murderer minister Israel Katz made reckless remarks, all politicians, including Özgür Özel, rightly reacted and stood by Erdoğan. For example, MHP Leader Bahçeli said, “Erdoğan is the head of the Republic of Turkey. The shameless and insolent language directed at him is directed directly at the sovereign rights of the Turkish state, the reputation of the Turkish nation, and the national will itself.”

While thanking those who showed this reaction, Erdoğan noted the following:

“I express with pleasure that we find this common stance displayed by political parties, which struggle to serve the nation in different lanes, to be very valuable when it comes to Turkey and Turkey's national pride... The Republic of Turkey is not an ordinary state. No power can wag its finger at Turkey and the President of Turkey. Let no one interpret our soft-headedness and common sense as being a submissive sheep. We see lying honorably under the ground when necessary as the greatest of honors rather than living dishonorably above the ground.”

In those same days, the following happened in Greece:

Singer Işın Karaca was denied entry to the country and deported because she sang the İzmir March and said “How happy is the one who says I am a Turk” at a concert she gave in Komotini in the past.

There was an attack on the reputation and pride of the Turkish Nation in this incident as well, but our officials did not even care!..

Hell for Muftis

What Greece does to the Turkish minority in Western Thrace is well known. They do not even recognize the muftis elected by our kinsmen. Finally, when they took action to appoint new muftis to Komotini and Xanthi in a way contrary to Lausanne, our Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on “Greek authorities to turn back from wrong practices.”

The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, on the other hand, claimed that “the minority in Western Thrace is not an ethnic but a religious minority,” meaning “they are not Turks, they are Muslims,” and argued that there is no provision in the Treaty of Lausanne regarding the election of the mufti by the minority, warning Turkey: “Repeated statements of a similar nature neither create law nor contribute to the establishment of an environment of trust and good neighborly relations.”

The Priest’s Farm

Moving from this Greek thesis, let us recall the following.

The name of the Patriarchate in Istanbul is not the Orthodox Patriarchate, but the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople...

According to Lausanne, while it should only deal with the religious affairs of our Greek citizens in Istanbul, Bozcaada, and Gökçeada, the Patriarch at its head, Bartholomew, not only uses the title “ecumenical,” which means leadership of 300 million Orthodox in the world, but also declares himself the “Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome”...

He appoints priests to all corners of the world, dismisses them, or punishes them. He uses churches in the Balkans and the Caucasus in the encirclement of Russia...

He holds official meetings with heads of state and signs agreements...

A host of country officials, especially from Greece, visit the Patriarchate freely. When they come to meet with Turkish officials, they first appear before Patriarch Bartholomew. Here is the latest example; New Zealand Governor-General Cindy Kiro was received by Bartholomew before Erdoğan...

Didn't we hear from Trump and Tom Barrack that the Halki Seminary would be opened in the way Bartholomew wants, that is, contrary to the Constitution and the Law on Unification of Education?..

Commemoration at the Gate of Hatred

While Greece does not recognize our elected muftis; while it deports singer Işın Karaca for saying “How happy is the one who says I am a Turk” and reading the İzmir March, let us look at what Bartholomew is doing in Istanbul.

April 10 was the 205th anniversary of the death of Patriarch Gregory V. Who is this patriarch? The ringleader of the 1821 Morea rebellion, through which Greece gained its independence from the Ottomans with great massacres. When the role of Gregory, who was the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople at the time, in the rebellion was determined, he was executed in front of the middle gate, which is the main entrance of the Patriarchate, by the decision of Sultan Mahmud II. This gate has been closed since that day, and they named it the “gate of hatred.”

On this April 10, the Patriarch commemorated Gregory at the gate of hatred, where he was hanged, lit a candle, and left spring flowers.

But unlike previous years, this time the commemoration in question was not announced on the Patriarchate's website!..

As you can see; Turkey has turned into a priest’s farm.

So much so that; he was also invited to this year's Antalya Diplomacy Forum by Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan. In what capacity and on whose behalf he is invited to this forum for the third time; this is another mystery!..

Since it cannot be thought that our administrators are afraid of a Greece of 10 million or Mitsotakis, what could be the reason for this unlimited tolerance shown at the expense of violating Lausanne?!

Müyesser YILDIZ

April 24, 2026