Turkish Newspaper: We Want Crete!

It has become a near daily occurrence that someone in Turkey, whether they be media, political or military, express their delusions of occupying a part of Greece - particularly Western Thrace, the Eastern Aegean Islands and/or Crete.

The last delusions, as reported by Greek City Times, came last week from Turkish state-owned Anadolu Agency and Turkish journalist Hacı Yakışıklı working for Yeni Akit, who think that a lawsuit by 100 NGO's will make Greece lose their sovereignty over 18 Aegean islands, Crete and Western Thrace.

"ATTENTION TO Crete!" is how an article published on Friday and titled "We Want Crete"  by Turkey's Far Right Önce Vatan newspaper began.

And unsurprisingly, after reading the article, there was nothing new to add that we have not been hearing over the past six months.

In a long winded rant of over 2,000 words, Önce Vatan repeated the usual lies of international law, the Blue Homeland, and all the other delusions we have become accustomed to.

Most interesting however is that Önce Vatan expanded on the Blue Homeland delusion.

The Blue Homeland delusion is Turkey's dream of occupying Greece's Eastern Aegean maritime space and islands.

To try and achieve the Blue Homeland, Turkey with the Libyan Muslim Brotherhood Government of National Accords (GNA), who control only 3% of territory in Libya and less than 40% of the population, made a deal to carve up Greece's maritime space between them.

To "achieve" this "legally," their map, that does not correspond with any international law or reality like they claim, completely omitted the existence of Greek islands, including inhabited ones like Kastellorizo.

However, Önce Vatan took the delusion one step further from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by extending the Turkish-Muslim Brotherhood GNA maritime border to include most of Crete, and the maritime space either side of it.

Of course, drawing maps and publishing them everywhere does not correspond with the reality on the ground. The areas Turkey dreams of occupying are Greek controlled and and patrolled by the Greek Navy, that has never lost a battle since its modern creation in 1821. There are no Turkish warships in sight, their delusions are only reduced to maps.

Although Önce Vatan, Turkish politicians/officials and the Turkish military discuss international law, none of them can explain why Turkey is only one in 15 countries in the whole world to not sign the United Nations Charter Law of the Sea. UNCLOS poses a major problem for Turkey because it completely contradicts Turkish ambitions, as seen in the below map.

With actual international law like UNCLOS implemented, not the mysterious ones that Turkey talks about but cannot quote or reference, this is how the Eastern Mediterranean is divided.

It is for this reason we can see why Turkey pretends many islands do not exist and why it made a deal with the Muslim Brotherhood government in Libya that is on the verge of collapse.

Currently, the Libyan National Army (LNA) is battling the GNA in the capital city of Tripoli, with the Muslim Brotherhood forces backed by only Turkey and jihadists. Meanwhile, the LNA has the support of not only Greece, but also Syria, France, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the United Arab Emirates.

So while Önce Vatan continues to dream of Crete being occupied by Turkey, where it can only be achieved with Libyan assistance, it is unlikely their dreams can become reality as it is only a matter of time until the GNA collapses. Turkey is finding it difficult to continue supporting the GNA as it is itself on the brink of economic collapse, as reported by Greek City Times.