Turkey says Muslim countries concerned by Israel-Greece-Cyprus alliance
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on Sunday that Muslim countries in the region are concerned by a growing military alliance between Israel, Greece and Cyprus.
Fidan said Greece had joined this grouping despite being a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato).
“No one has given assurances to us that this wasn’t an initiative against us before or after its founding,” Fidan said during the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in southern Turkey.
He also referred to comments made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu while standing alongside the Greek prime minister and the Cypriot president at a trilateral summit in Israel last year.
At a press conference in December, Netanyahu said: “To those who fantasise they can re-establish their empires and their dominion over our lands, I say: Forget it. It’s not going to happen. Don’t even think about it,” in an apparent reference to Turkey.
The Israel-Greece-Cyprus alignment, which dates back to the early 2010s, encompasses cooperation on security and defence, such as joint military training and intelligence sharing.
Fidan last week suggested that the alliance intended to encircle Turkey in the south and said it “brings more problems” and “leads to war”.
Athens rejected the remarks, saying its cooperation with Israel and Cyprus is peaceful and not directed against any third country.
On Sunday, Fidan reiterated that the trilateral arrangement clearly had a military dimension.
“Greece can say what it wants, but the picture is clear,” he said. “There is no other country in Europe that has taken this kind of step towards military cooperation and partnership.”
He added that the alliance was a concern not only for Turkey but also for Muslim countries in the region, even if they did not publicly express it.
“Israel has been recently running an expansionist policy, and Turkey’s concerns aren’t unwarranted,” he said.
Regional initiative
Turkey has meanwhile established regular dialogue mechanisms with Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan to discuss regional issues.
Fidan said this initiative was not directed against Israel and was not a military alliance comparable to the Israel-Greece-Cyprus cooperation.
“We aren’t like Israel. They established a military alliance with Greece and Cyprus against the Muslim countries," Fidan said.
"We, unlike Israel, try to end the conflicts in the region, stabilise it.”
In December, a Cypriot newspaper reported that Nicosia was uncomfortable being drawn into tensions between Israel and Turkey, and accused Netanyahu of inflaming the situation for domestic political gain.
A regional official familiar with the matter told Middle East Eye at the time that Cyprus was indeed uneasy about Israel’s approach.
“It’s the usual playbook with Israel,” the official said. “Messaging to its domestic audience with lots of bluster and gusto, ignoring the hard facts and projecting its own narrative.”
Cypriot newspaper Politis also reported that “selective and targeted leaks” from Israel, suggesting the creation of a joint brigade involving 1,000 soldiers each from Israel and Greece, and 500 from Cyprus, were agitating Nicosia.
In December, Cyprus Defence Minister Vasilis Palmas denied any such plan, stating there was no question of forming a joint military force.
A senior Greek official also denied the existence of such a force in comments to MEE earlier this year.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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