Turkey is intensifying its incendiary rhetoric and provocative actions, insisting on maintaining tension with Greece, mainly for internal consumption ahead of the crucial - for Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan - 2023 Presidential Elections.
Clearly irritated by Athens' moves, which are putting the brakes on in Turkish revisionism in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ankara is increasing challenges at all levels, targeting Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias, who seemly are an "obsession" for Turkish officials.
On Thursday, the press representative of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Ömer Çelik, defiantly stated, on the occasion of the incident with the Greek foreign minister at the airport in Libya: "we will take such steps that Mitsotakis and Dendias will not have time to land."
Also clearly irritated by the recent signing of the interstate agreement on joint Search and Rescue (SAR) operations with Egypt, which confirms the strategic nature of the two countries' relations and cancels again the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum, Çelik defiantly stated: "They are struggling because in the event that Turkey's rapprochement with Egypt takes place, the illegal movements of Greece and its illegal steps in the Eastern Mediterranean will end."
The recent handshake between Erdoğan and his Egyptian counterpart Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, in the presence of the Emir of Qatar Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, revived hopes in Ankara for the normalisation of its relations with Cairo.
However, something that, as was seen from the latest agreement between Greece and Egypt, is not an easy task.
READ MORE: Hürriyet: "Road map for normalisation of Turkey-Egypt relations after the Erdoğan-Sisi handshake."
