Turkish Press
April 14 2005

Friendship Is Ok, But…

BY OKTAY EKSI

HURRIYET- The fact that Turkish and Greek boats have been uttering
threats and challenging each other even while Greek Foreign Minister
Petros Molivyatis is in Ankara to discuss how the two nations can
obtain lasting peace and friendship confuses us. Maybe you’ve been
able to make some sense of it. We haven’t…

Our Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul and his Greek counterpart Petros
Molivyatis signed an agreement to end dogfights over the Aegean.
Meanwhile, the Athens News Agency reported that 34 Turkish airplanes
had recently violated international air traffic laws by violating
Greece’s national airspace.

Gul had previously announced that he was against lifting the casus
belli decision, but somehow he changed his mind overnight and
expressed that he had no objection to removing it. I’d say, `If no
one has any objections, then just announce that the casus belli has
been lifted and be done with it.’ But it’s not that simple.

Let’s say the Kardak issue is just a minor, unfortunate disagreement.
What about Turkish airplanes violating Greece’s national airspace? If
the reports are true, doesn’t this mean that our Foreign Ministry and
General Staff have communications problems?

Let’s make it clear, we do want to be friends with the Greeks, but we
believe that friendship is only possible if both sides adopt a
serious and sincere approach towards each other.

But if you say, `Let Turkey lift the casus belli and give up on
Kardak, but let Greece continue to teach its children in primary
school that Turks are savages and barbarians. Let Greece ignore the
European Union criteria for minorities when it comes to Turks living
in western Thrace. And let Greece still recognize the Armenian
`genocide’ and other fake claims.’ If you say this, then I say, no
way.