- Joined
- Mar 22, 2015
- Location
- Untied States of America
One aspect of the latest rift between Greece and Turkey which could prove decisive (if not this time, perhaps next time around) is the absence of a strong mediator with the political, economic and military weight to influence developments. In the existing conjuncture, only the United States can play this role.
The European Union does have capabilities and means of applying diplomatic pressure, but it lacks the impact of American power, particularly when it comes to an authoritarian leader like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The director of Zaman, Turkey’s biggest newspaper, told this writer a few months before the publication was shut down by authorities, that the Turkish strongman only acknowledges and respects two “powerful world leaders,” namely the American president of the time and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, each for different reasons – and no one else but them.
Any expressions of regret, recommendations or even condemnations from European officials including Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Donald Tusk or the bloc’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini are of course welcome – and anticipated – but will only achieve so much.
As past experience demonstrates, only the US has the power to stop Turkey; from Lyndon B. Johnson’s letter to then Turkish prime minister Ismet Inonu in 1964 which averted the invasion of Cyprus, to the intervention of US envoy Richard Holbrooke in 1996 which prevented military conflict over the Imia islets in the eastern Aegean.
Read more:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/225869/opinion/ekathimerini/comment/greece-turkey-without-an-arbitrator
The European Union does have capabilities and means of applying diplomatic pressure, but it lacks the impact of American power, particularly when it comes to an authoritarian leader like Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The director of Zaman, Turkey’s biggest newspaper, told this writer a few months before the publication was shut down by authorities, that the Turkish strongman only acknowledges and respects two “powerful world leaders,” namely the American president of the time and Russia’s Vladimir Putin, each for different reasons – and no one else but them.
Any expressions of regret, recommendations or even condemnations from European officials including Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, European Council President Donald Tusk or the bloc’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini are of course welcome – and anticipated – but will only achieve so much.
As past experience demonstrates, only the US has the power to stop Turkey; from Lyndon B. Johnson’s letter to then Turkish prime minister Ismet Inonu in 1964 which averted the invasion of Cyprus, to the intervention of US envoy Richard Holbrooke in 1996 which prevented military conflict over the Imia islets in the eastern Aegean.
Read more:
http://www.ekathimerini.com/225869/opinion/ekathimerini/comment/greece-turkey-without-an-arbitrator