Turkey: Jihad against Cyprus :: Gatestone Institute

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Turkey is now using the distraction of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a cover to increase its likelihood of officially annexing Cyprus’s north. On April 14, a protocol was signed between Turkey and the illegal Turkish de facto regime that has been ruling occupied northern Cyprus. Although Turkey has already forcibly altered the demography of Cyprus through the ethnic cleansing campaign, the new protocol gives Turkish nationals even easier access to the region.

The protocol also stipulates the strengthening of the Religious Affairs Department in the area, as well as building religious complexes, such as mosques, and restoring Turkish-Islamic heritage sites. The protocol makes no secret of Turkey’s intention to annex the north. The introduction states, “the island of Cyprus has been a part of Anatolia politically and culturally since 1571.” 1571 is when the Ottoman Empire began occupying Cyprus.

Head of Greek Pomaks’ Association rips into Erdogan’s revisionist expansionism – To Vima Online

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You forget, of course, that these islands have been Greek for thousands of years, many centuries before your ancestors for the first time in their history laid their eyes on the… blue colour of the Aegean.
The islands of Imvros and Tenedos were also Greek. Why do you not implement, correspondingly, the provisions of Article 14 of the Treaty of Lausanne?
[Article 14 stipulates: “The islands of Imbros and Tenedos, remaining under Turkish sovereignty, shall enjoy a special administrative organisation composed of local elements and furnishing every guarantee for the native non-Moslem population in so far as concerns local administration and the protection of persons and property. The maintenance of order will be assured therein by a police force recruited from amongst the local population by the local administration above provided for and placed under its orders. The agreements which have been, or may be, concluded between Greece and Turkey relating to the exchange of the Greek and Turkish populations will not be applied to the inhabitants of the islands of Imbros and Tenedos.”]

Cyprus-Invasion 1974: Incompetence of the Turkish army shocked NATO – WELT

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Only a three-week ceasefire, which came about on July 22 under pressure from the USA and NATO, changed the situation. While the fall of the military junta in Athens completely eliminated Greece as a supporter, the Turks increased their troops for their “Operation Atilla II” on the island to 32,000 men, plus numerous tanks, armored troop carriers and guns. The 45,000 Greek Cypriot fighters had nothing to oppose them. Between August 13 and 17, the Turks captured the airfields of Nicosia and Tibou and occupied large parts of Nicosia. When a new truce came into effect, they controlled more than a third of the island and hailed the venture as a major victory.

21 Greek islands with non-military status armed since 1960s | Daily Sabah

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Starting from the Treaty of London in 1913, the militarization of the eastern Aegean islands was restricted and their demilitarized status was confirmed with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. The Lausanne pact established a political balance between the two countries by harmonizing vital interests, including those in the Aegean. The 1947 Treaty of Paris, which ceded the Dodecanese islands from Italy to Greece, also confirmed their demilitarized status.

“History is not rewritten because someone constructs it arbitrarily in his mind,” PM Mitsotakis tells Erdogan – Keep Talking Greece

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“After the blatant Russian invasion of Ukraine, we must send a clear message that no one in the third decade of the 21st century can accept the despotic revision that threatens not only the international geopolitical balance, but also the acceptable borders on which the modern world. History is not rewritten because someone constructs it arbitrarily in his mind.”

Regarding the processes of the Summit, K. Mitsotakis stressed that “it turned out that there is indeed potential for cooperation of all parties in the region and at the same time this

The truth about the love-hate relationship between Turks and Greeks – Yeni Safak

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… The current conjuncture cannot be strictly reduced to Turkish-Greek relations. It is more serious than that this time. The context is the West-Eurasia showdown. Eurasia, primarily Turkey and Russia, is being pushed away by the West. While Vladimir Putin’s Russia is being put in a quagmire through Ukraine, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s Turkey is being treated similarly through Greece. Look at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and you will see the resemblance to Mitsotakis. Zelensky provoked Putin’s Russia with the West’s pressures, and now, Mitsotakis is similarly provoking Erdoğan’s Turkey. Let’s hope the result will not be similar to what’s happening in Ukraine. 

2021 Report on International Religious Freedom: Turkey – United States Department of State

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The government issues chip-enabled national identity cards that contain no visible section to identify religious affiliation.  The information on religious affiliation is recorded in the chip and remains visible to authorized public officials as “qualified personal data” and protected as private information.  Previously issued national identity cards, which continue in circulation, contain a space for religious identification with the option of leaving the space blank.  The new cards include the same options for religious identities as the older cards:  Muslim, Greek Orthodox, non-Orthodox Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Zoroastrian, Confucian, Taoist, Buddhist, “no religion,” or “other/unknown.”  Baha’i, Alevi, Yezidi, and other religious groups with known populations in the country were not options, requiring individuals of other religions or no religion to leave the category blank or to state “other/unknown.”