Is there any possibility of an impending war between Greece and Turkey? The answer is “NO”

“Occupying the islands does not bind us. We will do what is necessary when the time comes. As we say, we can come suddenly one night,” Turkish President Erdoğan has recently stated.
These comments were the most strident attack Erdoğan has made against the Greeks in the past few years, and the adoption of such belligerent rhetoric by the Turkish strongman was utterly surprising.
For decades, Turkey and Greece have been in conflict over the sovereignty of the Aegean islands. However, the Greeks have begun to boost their military buildup on these disputed islands, which has enraged the Turks.
Additionally, Erdoğan has warned Greece that it would pay a high price for continuing to violate Turkish airspace and disrupt the trajectory of Turkey’s passenger flights over the Aegean Sea.
Political observers argue that Greece is irritated and vexed with Turkey’s success in natural gas drilling in the eastern Mediterranean. Therefore, Athens tried to raise tensions to thwart Ankara’s endeavours to extract energy through the militarisation of the disputed Aegean islands.
The European Union and the United States are worried that the strife between Greece and Turkey could escalate into a devastating military conflict in the Mediterranean.
“Hey Greeks, look at history. Go back to history. If You go too far, it will cost a lot. “We have only one sentence for Greece; do not forget İzmir,” President Erdoğan remarked on Saturday, September 4th.
Erdoğan was referring to the 1922 Turkish Independence War, in which 20,000 men perished to defeat the Greeks in İzmir. This year, Turks commemorated the centennial of the liberation of the coastal city of İzmir, or as Greeks call Smyrna, with great pomp and fanfare.
Meanwhile, as hostilities between the two countries are approaching a boiling point, Ankara and Athens, both members of the US-led NATO, are becoming ardent about procuring cutting-edge weapons from the United States. Yet, these requests have irked many politicians in Washington.
To the disenchantment of the US administrations, Turkey and Greece have received some of their weaponry from Russia.
Erdoğan’s geopolitical aspirations have rendered Turkey a pariah state among Europeans in a previous decade. To improve diplomatic ties and change the adverse political dynamics working against his country’s ailing economy, Erdoğan has recently made a drastic volte-face. For instance, Ankara achieved a détente with the Zionist regime and reestablished ties with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
It does not seem like a large-scale military conflagration between Greece and Turkey is imminent. Nonetheless, Erdoğan has consistently demonstrated his penchant for making impulsive decisions overnight, and the Greeks have vowed to strike back hard if Ankara launches any military action.
Many pundits see the ongoing standoff between Turkey and Greece as a hoax. Erdoğan is obliged to deflect the nation’s attention away from growing domestic woes by beating the drums of war and stirring national sentiments, as the world witnessed the same scenario earlier.
During the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, in which the Turkish-backed Azerbaijani troops fought against Armenians, Erdoğan concealed Turkey’s devolving economic conditions beneath demagogic slogans such as “One Nation, Two States.” As the 2023 legislative elections loom, Erdoğan needs another political charade to improve his tarnished image.