Turkish Greek Relations
...of both Turkey and Greece for many years. The Turkish Greek relations have roots dating back to the Ottoman times. The two communities shared the same roof under the Ottomans, which caused them to show many similar cultural aspects . Altough the two nations have many commonalities, they have problematic relations including competition, tension, clash and even war. Tozun Bahçeli summarizes the two countries relations very clearly with this sentence, "In recent decades it has not been unusual for Turkey and Greece, approximately every ten years, to become involved in a showdown and reach the brink of war." The main reasons for these clashes are the issues in the Aegean and in Cyprus. The issues in the Aegean Sea are water territories, continental shelf and airspace and the militarization of the Greek islands. This problem is so powerful that the two countries nearly got into war over a small rocky islet in the Aegean Sea im 1996 which was recorded into the history books as the Kardak/Imia Crisis. The Cyprus issue is mainly the fight of two communities over having the control of the island, which later turned into the Turkish occupation of the northern part of the island by using military force. The Cyprus issue is still unresolved and it stands as a barrier in front the the Turkish foreign policy. Also the Greek dream of Megali Idea, which is a desire for extending the Greek borders including Western Anatolia, the Black Sea coast, all Aegean islands and Cyprus causes a bad reputation of the Greeks among the Turks. Together with all these problems and issues between Turkey and Greece, we may not disregard the positive sides of the Turkish Greek relations. The relations got into a cooling process after the initiation of the "earthquake diplomacy" between the two countries. This earthquake diplomacy arose after the earthquakes that stroke both countries in...
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