Geo-Strategic Games By Turkey In Thrace And The Goal To Divide The Aegean

English: Nestos river near Xanthi, Thrace, Greece. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The following article was written by geopolitical analyst Savvas Kalenteridis and published in Greek in the Sunday edition of the Dimokratia newspaper.  The translation into English (and interpretation) is from the HellasFrappe team.

Even though Turkey claims that it has minorities in more than fifteen countries, only two have been included in its geopolitical plans. These designs have specific aims and are directly related to the exploration and exploitation of energy sources. These plans gave way to the development of a national strategy that includes a series of respective policies. And these minorities are part of this design, and are meant to serve as valuable tools to Ankara so that it can achieve its overall geopolitical objectives.

It is important to note, that these objectives have never changed and/or been modified by any Turkish government for the past five decades and this is because all political entities in Turkey aligned themselves to this one national geopolitical plan.

The first minority which Turkey began to play its geopolitical and energy game with is located in the occupied area of Cyprus. Here Turkey -as well as other interests- used the minority to achieve its strategic and political objectives -in the worst way-.

These objectives include:

• the geopolitical control of the island
• the creation of a buffer zone
• the security of pipeline terminals for the transport of natural gas and oil
• the expansion of Turkish territory
• and the conquest of a Turkish EEZ in the East Mediterranean

Turkey was able to achieve the aforementioned objectives, when it brutally invaded and occupied northern Cyprus in the 70s, with the decisive support of England, the US and the Jewish factor. This is something that every Greek must remember and never forget, up until the minute the last Turkish soldier leaves from Cyprus' sacred soil.

The second minority to which Turkey has shown an incomprehensible "love" and "devotion" to in the last fifty years, is the Muslim minority in Thrace. The Muslim minority in this area of Greece was excluded from the population exchange in 1923 between both countries. This was decided so that the Greeks on the islands of Imvros and Tenedos can remain on their land. It is also the birthplace of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos.

Over the past fifty years, Turkey has given incredible power to its Consulate in Komotini. In return the Consulate has acted as a state within a state -with the incomprehensible tolerance of Greek authorities- and it has successfully managed to create a powerful and well-supported network that literally Turkifies Pomaks and Roma peoples. At the same time it also creates the right conditions that might allow Turkey one day to claim all of -or part of- the energy reserves in the Northern Aegean (especially the Babouris deposit, etc.) depending of course on the developments and/or the reaction of Greece. Ankara's ultimate goal of course is to get control of the Bourgas-Alexandroupolis pipeline, if it is ever actually constructed and put into operation.

At the same time, Ankara aims to use the Muslim minority in this area so that it can have the last word in the eastern area of this region (around the Nestos River). But most importantly so that it can finally achieve a continuous and sharp line in the center of the Aegean.

Obviously Turkey will claim everything that is located east of that line, and everything that would be west of this line would not necessarily belong to Greece.

It is a good thing if our Foreign Minister takes these issues into consideration when he meets with his Turkish counterparts. (Source in Greek)

Editor's Note - We totally agree.