Akar invites Greek defense minister to Türkiye

Hande Fırat - ANKARA

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has admitted that he invited his Greek counterpart, Nikolaos Panagiotopoulos, and his wife to Türkiye to create a positive atmosphere amid the increasing tension between the two countries.

“I invited Panagiotopoulos to Türkiye with his wife when we were in Brussels,” Akar said during an exclusive interview on Oct. 20.

Akar attended a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in the Belgian capital on Oct. 12.

“I made the invitation to create a positive atmosphere, but I guess there are some [people] who are bothered by this,” he added.

Saying that the problems between Türkiye and Greece can be solved or taken under control, Akar stated that problems should be solved or managed without doing harm to both countries, regions and NATO.

Renewing his call for dialogue, he reminded, “However, when we say dialogue, peace and brotherhood, some see this as weakness. There is no such thing.”

The minister highlighted that Greece is arming the islands with a decision contrary to the Lausanne Treaty, but “even in this position, Türkiye says ‘let’s meet and talk.’”

According to the minister, the problem occurs when “some others” talk on behalf of Greeks.

When asked about the U.S.’ upgrading the military bases in Greece, he clarified, “Türkiye signed a military cooperation pact with the U.S. in the 1980s. So did the Greeks in the 1990s.”

“They [The U.S.] renewed [this treaty] in 2020. They increased the number of the bases [in Greece] from five to nine. The base in Alexandroupolis is one of them. The U.S. says it will place a logistic center there and use it against Russia.”

Meanwhile, the test shots of TAYFUN, Türkiye’s first short-range ballistic missile, have been shared by the Defense Ministry, receiving wide coverage in the Greek media.

Some Greek dailies headlined the test shots as “TAYFUN can hit Athens.”

“Turks placed ballistic missiles to their ‘threat quiver,’” reported daily Kathimerini, while Ta Nea wrote, “The distance covered by TAYFIN is more than twice the distance between [the western province of] İzmir and Athens.”

“Athens did not know about the existence of this missile before,” Ta Nea added.

The test shots were also a point of interest to the former Greek military servicemen. Speaking to local media, Frangulis Frangos, the former chief of the Greek Land Forces, said, “No need to panic. Greece has an anti-ballistic missile system to shoot TAYFUN down.”

Yannis Papafloratos, a former academic of the Greek Military Academy, was on the other side, warning Athens to “produce indigenous defense industry.”

“We should not only purchase weapons but produce them. The test shots are new proof showing how the Turkish defense industry has improved,” he added.