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Tirana, the mouthpiece and a basic "frontman" for Ankara stated on Friday that Albania will "actively react if Greece submits unilateral maps with maritime borders with its neighbors to the United Nations" without of course specifying exactly what type of reaction this would be.
Did they mean ... war?
Or will they declare an EEZ on Greece's own risking an armed conflict with Greece?
Referring to official sources from the Foreign Ministry, the Albanian newspaper "Gazeta Shqiptare" said in one report that until now the Tirana government has sensed that Greece has not really progressed on the issue. "We will examine this issue -with attention- and then we will make our move when the initiative will be implemented, always in the best interest of the Republic of Albania. We will examine what steps to follow only in the event that Greece proceeds with a unilateral statement at the UN."
The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs (and especially those who are 100% responsible for Greece's intentions to move ahead with this) have yet to respond, (meaning to both Turkish and Albanian threats).
Late in 2011 and a little after the announcement of the Greek-Cypriot and Israeli axis, Turkey began making even more moves in Albania. An article on newsbomb had said at the time that Turkish propaganda was endorsing and (possibly funding) the idea of a "Greater Albania" in order to pressure Greece over its designs. Albanians, on the other, who had begun promoting their own expansionist designs in the Balkans, probably teamed up with the Turks and are now fired up on causing "trouble".
At the time the article had said that since money is the only item that rules in Albania, our neighbors will not hesitate to give earth and water to the Turks in order to quench their greed. This is why they signed a military cooperation pact with Ankara and now the Turkish navy can move comfortably in Albanian territorial waters as well as anchor its naval base in Durres, (another project that was funded by Ankara).
Aside from the obvious, a book on a new-type of Ottoman Empire only comes to confirm this. It was published by Professor Ahmet Davutoglu (the present Foreign Minister of Turkey) and is entitled "Strategic depth". In his book, Dautoglu notes that the Turkish and Muslim minorities in Bulgaria, Greece, FYROM, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Romania are crucial to Ankara's foreign policy in the Balkans. (p. 200).
And all this because Turkey has evolved from a statusquo power to a more assertive and interventionist actor.
It is therefore common sense to characterise Turkey’s new found interests in this neighbourhood as the corollary of a neo-Ottoman vision. This neo-Ottoman approach would substitute an old secular Kemalist foreign policy (Taspınar: 2008). Turkish authorities dislike this concept, arguing that it is easily associated with some sort of imperialistic ambition. (Helloo... it is...) But this does not prevent them from making references to a “common history” and “cultural affinity” with the territories of the former Ottoman Empire in public discourses.
And as it seems, we got a taste of that today.
Editor's Note - It is now or never. Our opinion here at HellasFrappe is that Greece cannot allow itself to be intimidated by countries such as Turkey and Albania. It doesn't matter if the news was leaked by "shady" remnants -probably from the papandreou era- at the Greek Foreign Ministry. The more we scream and ridicule the intentions of Albania and Turkey the more they will think twice about even attempting such plans of action. It will turn on them as a boomerang. Turkey will have to answer to NATO and other international organizations for even daring to touch one centimeter in our country, while Albania better think twice before all the Greek businesses pull the plug on their commercial market and allow the country to surpass Greece's own unemployment ratio.Ante min trelathoume telios.
Read more about Turkey's involvement with Albania and why Alexis Tsipras agrees on some issues with the Turks and the Albanians by clicking here.
http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.com/2012/11/special-report-vultures-everywhere.html
References in Greek for this article
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