Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar accuses Greece of expansionism against Turkey with a flurry of new statements.

“In other words, you from 3,000 islands in the Aegean will appear before our noses and accuse us of expansionism. There really is no logic. We want third countries to see and understand this. There is something that began in 1832 and continues. There is a process. They covered the entire Aegean Sea. What is an expansionist? The eyes see it. Here we are talking about a country that has expanded 5 or 7 times since its founding. What is an expansionist? Against Turkey,” said Mr. Akar, who has made no secret of his displeasure with the purchase of defense materials in Greece, but at the same time raised the issue of the demilitarization of the Aegean Islands, whose sovereignty he disputes.

“They have significantly increased their defense budget. They increased it five times. We tell them not to get tired of what you are doing, it’s not much for the Turkish Armed Forces,” said the Turkish Defense Minister and continued:

“AT 12 article of the Lausanne Treaty and in 14 an article in the Treaty of Paris mentions that these islands were ceded to Greece on terms of demilitarization. These are islands with a demilitarized status. There are 23 islands, of which they have militarized 16. And they come before us with frivolous arguments. They drove and set up airfields, tanks, mortars. Then doesn’t that give us the right to self-defense? Isn’t the planting of weapons under our noses a threat to our country? What happens if we react? Isn’t the sovereignty of these islands disputed due to militarization?”

In his new statements, Mr. Akar also appears to have abandoned neo-Ottomanism. “They are making unfounded claims. Now they continue to talk about neo-Ottomanism. In our conversations, in our meetings, in our requests, there is no such thing. We are talking about international law, the Lausanne and Paris treaties. This is what we say and declare our rights.”

However, the Turkish Defense Minister did not fail to repeat the irritation of the Turkish side about the involvement of third parties in the Greek-Turkish dispute. “We don’t want the Greek-Turkish problems to turn into Turkey-EU, Turkey-Europe, Turkey-NATO and Turkey-US problems,” he said. “The problems of the two countries are the problems of Greece and Turkey. But, unfortunately, the Prime Minister of Greece, as well as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece, with their aggressive rhetoric and aggressive actions, spoil a possible positive climate that could be created between the two countries … Since they did not just go to the United States so that they would not give us F-16, they also went to Germany and said “don’t give the submarine.”