TROUBLE IN THE EASTMED: REALISM TO THE RESCUE

During Christmas world historic events do not stop, not even for the birthday of our Lord and Savior. There is not one specific development that warrants our attention, rather it is the marginal that could in time lead to major trouble. It is partly technical, partly diplomatically complicated. On the other hand, my point is precisely that it is not. Some of you may never have heard about it, but I am referring to the European Economic Zone (EEZ), in particular of the EastMed countries of Greece, Cyprus, Turkey and Syria. 


Greece's EEZ according to a map of the European Union. They pass laws and regulations, but fail to defend them, even on the diplomatic level. 

We need not get deep into the details, but the EEZ is defined as follows:

"a maritime area beyond the territorial sea of a coastal state, extending up to 200 nautical miles (370.4 km) from the baseline within which zone, a coastal state has sovereign rights for the purpose of exploring, exploiting, conserving, and managing natural resources of the seabed, subsoil, and waters above it." 

(More here). (Commentory by Harris Samaras (link).  It's fairly simple, up to this point. 

Turkey has declared an EEZ together with the failed state of Libya extending it all across the EastMed to the shore of Africa. If this is even legal is besides the point I want to make. 

Since Turkey got away with that there is now the well founded fear in Athens and Nicosia that Turkey will declare a similar joint EEZ between Turkey, Turkish occupied northern Cyprus and its new annexed territory of Syria.









H/t Harris Samaras

Athens for its part until today and for the sake of peace with Turkey, has not extended its own EEZ into the Aegean Sea, since that would imply its EEZ would be approaching the Turkish mainland.

Turkish President Erdogan has stated he would consider Athens implementing its EEZ to the permitted 200 nautical miles (370.4 km), an act of war. 

The contrast is sharp. Greece is not permitted to extend its EEZ within the internationally accepted zone, while Turkey is over extending to the shores of Africa and the Levant. Again, if that is even legal, is not the point. 

I content that so-called international law does not even exist. It is an idealistic phantom of the post World War 2 liberal democrat rules based order that may exist in some internationalist's mind, but not in reality.

States have laws and a law enforcement apparatus (the police and a penal system) to ensure its laws are respected. But the planet is not a state, even though some may pretend the United Nations is a world Government of some kind (which God forbid!). 

That same 'rules based order' has in the past made efforts to get some kind of an equivalent of a global law enforcement apparatus in place. Willing countries would send 'peace keepers' to ensure that international law would be respected.

A ridiculous court in The Hague was even set up for the purpose. The great powers of course did not sign up, but use it nevertheless as a weapon to further their own interests. 

The EU at the moment is seriously trying to get a 'peace keeping' force in place in Ukraine as part of the negotiations with Russia. They won't get it of course, but the fact they even propose it, shows that some people are incapable of learning. 

Over 25 years ago in the former state of Yugoslavia we have seen to what disaster UN peace missions have led. The Dutch contingent had hell to pay in the courts for many years after the conflict. Dutch tax payers are still on the hook today, paying for 'repairs' to the Bosnian Muslims of Srebrenica.

The international community is not a thing. States do not have friends, they have interests. To pretend otherwise is testimony to a deep lack of understanding of the nature of reality. Reality is hard: might makes right is not just a pre Christian condition of the world; it is its default position.

The problems between Greece and Turkey are testimony to that reality. When the great powers were Christian states, perhaps some measure of Christian moral ethics could be expected. But this is no longer the case. 

We are back to the Roman Empire BC as former Christian countries no longer "do religion in politics" and many new players on the block have never been Christian to begin with, Turkey being one of them. 

History matters too. Greece is a relatively small nation in a historically tough neighborhood. It has in effect been a protectorate of the great powers (UK, France and Russia) ever since it was carved out of the Ottoman Empire in the first half of the 19th century. That never changed.

Many smaller Western nations (like the Dutch) to this day believe they are the same independent, sovereign state they fought for centuries ago, but this is no longer the case.

In the post postmodern world Governments are increasingly meddling in each others internal affairs like there's no tomorrow. And to them, in many cases, there isn't. 

Turkey on the other hand is the successor state of the Ottoman Empire and is still operating with the mentality of a hegemon. Turkey does whatever it wants. As do all other hegemons, especially the US.

Turkey's President is a grand master at playing games on the world's chess board. As a legacy of the Cold War it also maintains the perception that it is the indispensable link between Europe and Asia.

To complicate matters we now have Turkey not only 'illegally' occupying northern Cyprus unhindered by the 'international community', but also illegally holding sway over Syria by way of its terrorist proxies, with the approval of the Biden regime in the US as part of its game in the Middle East. Which makes precisely my point. 

President Trump has already said he is washing his hands off the situation is Syria, thereby denying US responsibility for leaving a failed state in Syria, but also potentially leaving its allies, the Kurds in the lurch. 

There are increasing tensions between Turkey and its proxies, and the Israeli forces that have taken charge of the south of the country, up to some 20km from Damascus. 

This is a powder keg no one of the great powers is going to touch with a barge pole, although it is one of their own making. Millions of Syrians, among whom many Christians and other minorities are at the mercy of terrorists in suits. This is a heavy responsibility in a neighborhood rich in genocides.

Although this is not the focus of this post and reaching far too deep to go into now, but a few words are in order about the mind-set and world view prevailing in the collective West today. 

In short order a new posting is on the way explaining the dualistic world view that has resulted in our politicians living in abstract worlds instead of reality. This is true on the whole, but especially among academics and the intellectual class to which most politicians belong. 

Their universities and places of work are not in countries, but in global hubs. The units in which they count are not individuals or even nations, but in entire categories and species.

They are not people participating in their own societies, but globalist elites watching as distant observers their fellow human beings as if they themselves are scientists and the rest of us are mere microbes.

More on this ideology in "Internationalism" in the series on the Enlightenment (link). 

Many people are looking at the Orthodox nations of Greece as an observing member of the UN Security Council and at Cyprus as EU President from Jan. 1, as the protectors of Christian minorities in the Middle East. Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides has even appointed a special representative for religious freedoms (link). 

But both nations are minor players on the world stage for the reasons we have explained here. When the great powers have to choose between Christian ethics and their interests, when push comes to shove everybody knows what side of the sandwich is buttered, 

Realists must stop talking about 'illegal occupations' and optimism about 'international law'. The pretense there is such a thing as 'rights of nations' or that such a notion is even enforceable, is a denial of reality that is not going to help anyone. 

The sooner those making up the Hellenist eparchy understand this, the better the outcome will be. If history shows us anything, it is that the Greek nation has some five thousand years of civilization behind its belt, with 80 percent of its physical and 99 percent of its cultural DNA intact. 

The world has not been in such a mess since 1945, thanks to our sociopathic overlords. But Hellenism is forever! So there's that. 



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