Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used his G20 tribune to repeat thinly veiled threats against Greece on Wednesday, telling reporters Turkey “can comme suddenly one night” and that its neighbor should “mind its place” and “remember the history.”
During a press conference in Bali, Erdoğan said that Greece’s effort to boost its military presence on Aegean islands “has no meaning,” adding that “all the planes and weapons that come will be of no use.”
Erdoğan has stepped up his rhetoric against Greece in recent months, amid what Ankara sees as a growing military buildup on the Greek Aegean islands, close to Turkey’s coastline.
It’s not the first time Erdoğan uttered this specific threat, which is a reference to “Bir Gece Ansızın Gelebilirim,” a song popular the Turkish invasion of northern Cyprus in 1974.
Last September, Erdoğan already said that Turkey could “come suddenly one night,” leading Athens to draw comparisons with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“We risk witnessing again a situation similar to that currently unfolding in some other part of our Continent,” Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias wrote at the time in letters to NATO, the EU and the United Nations.
In September the EU expressed its concerns over Erdoğan’s comments, while the U.S. State Department called them “unhelpful” and repeated that Greek sovereignty over the Aegean islands is “not in question.”
Despite being NATO allies, the neighboring countries have been at odds for decades over a number of bilateral disputes, including maritime boundaries and the long-running Cyprus dispute.
