The situation in the eastern Mediterranean has been tense with Turkey and Greece involved in a dispute over energy exploration rights and maritime boundaries in the area. The two neighbours have been wrangling over military games in the region despite both being part of the NATO alliance.
Complicating the matters have been Erdogan’s plans to install the high-end Russian S-400 air defence system in the country, which has left even Washington worried. Greece’s Minister of Defense Nikos Panagiotopoulos was quoted by a news agency as saying the decision was enough to prove that potentially Turkey, whether it wanted to or inadvertently, would prove to be a source of “undermining NATO’s cohesion from within.”
He added that if nothing was done, then Turkey’s leaders have all the right to believe that “they can go on uninhibited, demonstrating that type of hostile and confrontational behaviour that threatens stability in the whole region.” He said that deployment of the Russian system will be “too much of an aggressive move” on part of Turkey.Read more…
