Expecting to face the same old Turkey

Greek officials are closely watching the Turkish presidential and parliamentary elections, but seem resigned to the fact that the neighboring country’s policy includes expansionist claims in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean and the questioning of Greece’s sovereignty over many of its Aegean islands, as well as the islands’ themselves possessing a continental shelf.

Kathimerini’s English Edition’s Monday paper went to print before results in the Turkish election were known. Although most polls showed the opposition, including presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu, ahead of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his party, the result could be too close to call or, worse, contested by the losing party or coalition of parties.

Professor Thanos Dokos, national security adviser to Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, told Kathimerini that, although there has been a change of tone and behavior by Turkish officials for the better in recent months, after Greece assisted Turkey following the devastating earthquakes that hit in February, “it is a given that there has been no change of strategy,” and will not be, even if there is a change of government in Turkey.

His view reflects that of Mitsotakis, who declared, during the debate among political party leaders last week, that historical revisionism is “baked into the DNA” of all Turkish parties. He also declared, in subsequent interviews to the Associated Press and Kathimerini that he is ready to talk with the winner of the Turkish election, whoever he may be.

“We hope, of course, that at some point Turkey realizes it has more to gain by a rapprochement with Greece... and the West, in general,” Dokos says.