Turkey has warned Greece that they now have missiles that can hit Athens. Politico. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan was referring to Turkey's new Tayfun (typhoon) ballistic missiles that have a range of 560 kilometers (347 miles). Erdogan threatened to use those missiles if Greece tried to develop or purchase similar weapons. The two countries remain NATO allies but the relationship is extremely strained due to many issues including maritime boundaries and Cyprus. The Turks say that Greece is building up forces in the Aegean Sea and that the build up is unacceptable. For their part, Greece has pressured their other NATO allies saying that the situation could turn into another "Ukraine".
My Comment:
With allies like these. The last thing the world needs right now is a conflict between Turkey and Greece. Such a conflict would cripple trade in the region and would utterly destroy the NATO alliance. Though I wouldn't be upset about the 2nd part, a war between Greece and Turkey helps no one.
The real question is if this is a real threat or just more saber rattling between the two nations. I would think that an actual war is fairly unlikely. The entire region has a lot on its plate right now and there is always the threat of war with Russia to help keep the alliance in line.
I am fairly skeptical that Turkey wants another war right now regardless. They are kind of bogged down with their own mess with the Kurds and they are probably going to invade Syria and possibly Iraq any day now. The Kurds have been a much larger problem than the Greeks ever had been and I can't see them taking the foot off the Kurds neck just to get into a pointless war with a major ally.
But then again, this is 2022 and nothing about foreign policy makes sense. The hatred between the two countries is real and I consider it fair on the Greeks part. After all, Turkey was responsible for the Greek genocide, so it's not like there isn't precedence for conflict between the two states.
I don't blame the Greeks for shoring up their defenses. They are under threat and they can't trust Erdogan. I don't think it's worth it for them to try and purchase long range missiles like the Turks have. Doing so wouldn't really help that much during a war, after all, ballistic missiles are used fairly regularly in the Yemen conflict and it hasn't had that much of an effect. It's simply not worth the risk to purchase these weapons at this point for the Greeks.
As for Erdogan, I consider him to be a thug and everything that people say about Vladimir Putin is also true about Tayyip Erdogan. He's a warmonger and a leader that could cause major problems for the rest of the world. I do wish that the coup against him had succeeded, though there is no guarantee that the coup plotters would have been any better than he is.
Still, I am not too worried about a war breaking out between Greece and Turkey, at least not yet. NATO is still a major force and the last thing the United States wants is a war between two of their allies. I am sure there will be some diplomatic pressure put on both sides to cool off. The world has enough tinder boxes as it is there is no reason to add to it.
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