A retired Rear Admiral of Turkey's Navy, most famously known as the "mastermind" behind the Blue Homeland doctrine, has come up with a new fantasy, claiming that the people of Crete and Rhodes are not Greek.
In an article on DHA, retired Rear Admiral Cihat Yaycı urged that Greece and Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean must never sit to negotiate the sharing of maritime jurisdiction.
He would go onto say that “A serious perception operation is being carried out on our people. There is an understanding as if our ancestors took these islands from the Greeks and recourse to their originals with the Lausanne and Paris agreements. We took these islands from the Venetians, the Genoese."
"We did not buy it from the Greeks. Those on this island speak Greek. Because they speak in their language because they are under the influence of the Roman Empire. The majority of Crete and Rhodes are not Greeks either," he ludicrously said.
Yaycı was actually demoted in May because of Turkey’s complete failure to project its power in the Eastern Mediterranean. Yaycı is known as the architect of Turkey’s “Blue Homeland” theory that aims to annex Greece’s Eastern Aegean islands and maritime space.
To achieve the “Blue Homeland,” Ankara in November 2019, with recommendation from Yaycı, sealed the “Marine Jurisdictions” maritime boundary delimitation deal with Libya’s Muslim Brotherhood Government of National Accords (GNA) to split Greek maritime space between Turkey and Libya.
However, since the signing of the deal with the Tripoli-based GNA, Ankara’s power projections in the Eastern Mediterranean has only weakened Turkish influence. Turkey had not expected for Greece to expel the GNA ambassador from Athens, one of the first NATO and EU countries to do so. In reaction, Greece recognised the GNA’s rival, the Tobruk-based Libyan House of Representatives who appointed Field Marshal Khalifa Belqasim Haftar to command the Libyan National Army against Turkish-backed jihadists who fight for the GNA.
European ambassadors to Libya yesterday rejected a maritime deal struck by between Libya and Turkey last year.
"The EU and its Member States reiterate that the Turkey-Libya Memorandum of Understanding on the delimitation of maritime jurisdictions in the Mediterranean Sea infringes upon the sovereign rights of third States, does not comply with the Law of the Sea and cannot produce any legal consequences for third States," the European diplomats said following meetings with senior officials from the Government of National Accord (GNA).
