The 2023 Elections in Turkey and The Turkish-Greek Relations: Facts, Possibilities and Conclusions
The 2023 Elections in Turkey and The Turkish-Greek Relations: Facts, Possibilities and Conclusions

Author(s): Anthony Deriziotis
Subject(s): International relations/trade, Electoral systems
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: 2023; Elections; Turkey; Turkish-Greek; relations; facts; possibilities; conclusions;
Summary/Abstract: Turkish-Greek relations are a complex, volatile and at times unpredictable security issue that has troubled the western alliance since the Cold War. The Cyprus issue, the treatment of the religious minorities and the disputes related to the law of the sea have played a dominant role in the formation of foreign policies and defence doctrines. The two countries have gone through crises, a few of which brought them to the brink of war, but have also experienced positive stints. In the post-Cold War years, relations resembled a roller-coaster ride, while the role of the EU towards the end of the 1990s was instrumental in the 1999 Greek-Turkish rapprochement. In 2004 it suffered two significant blows. First, was the rejection of the Annan Plan by the Greek-Cypriots in April and in December the Greek PM K. Karamanlis and his Turkish counterpart R.T. Erdoğan retracted on the Helsinki commitment to refer the outstanding maritime disputes to International Court of Justice. Despite these setbacks, the two countries enjoyed a rather calm 15 year long period, where trade and economic cooperation bloomed. Since 2019, relations rapidly deteriorated due to the complications from the discovery of natural gas fields in the east Mediterranean Sea and specifically those within Cyprus’s EEZ, the rise within AKP rhetoric of the “Blue Homeland” doctrine, which promotes views of Turkish naval hegemony, and the complications of the refugee and migration issue.

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