Turkish independent journalist Abdullah Bozkurt writes in Nordic Monitor that Turkey planned an invasion of Greece back on 2003. Turkey’s war plans against Greece were particularly targeting western Thrace and the Aegean islands. The plans suffered a serious setback due to the expanded military presence of the United States and France in support of Greek defense, prompting a wave of sharp criticism from Turkey’s increasingly frustrated leadership, including President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in recent years. The ultimate goal was to seize control of the Aegean islands. The plans were discussed during a military seminar in 2003. A summary of the seminar's classified report was presented to participants in a PowerPoint presentation, a copy of which was later obtained by Nordic Monitor. You can download it here below.
Turkey’s military strategy for a potential incursion into Greek territory was designed to exploit a narrow window of opportunity, of three to four days which Turkish generals anticipated would close quickly, through swift intervention from the US and Europe. The window would not not allow for long-term occupation, but was enough to inflict significant damage on Greek forces.
These secret plans were first revealed during the 2010 'Sledgehammer' (Balyoz) trial in Istanbul, which exposed the mindset of hardline Turkish generals considering such contingencies.
At the time the revelations drew little attention, likely because they were buried in the annexes of an extensive case file, whose primary focus was a domestic power struggle between influential military leaders and the civilian government.
However, the overwhelming evidence in the case file -- including authenticated documents, voice recordings and General Staff reports -- confirmed that detailed war plans were indeed discussed during a military seminar held March 5-7, 2003. Some thirty senior officers took part in the seminar.
"The measures to be taken in Thrace must support the operation in the Aegean", stated the seminar’s final report. "The objective in this region should be less about territorial gains and more focused on destroying as many enemy forces as possible."
The seminar also revealed the prevailing mindset among Turkish military planners at the time, particularly those with anti-American and anti-NATO views.
While Erdogan initially clashed with these officers, he eventually formed a decade-long political alliance with them and their civilian supporters, collectively known as Ulusalcılar (neo-nationalists), in 2014.
Social media CEO Marios Karatzias @marioskaratzias writes that
Turkey‘s plans are known to Greece, reason being why Greece invests seriously in its armed forces.
The Hellenic Airforce's present air supremacy guarantees that if there is a military attack, it will not be isolated, but a general attack on all military infrastructure along all the front.
He warns that the revelation of the aggressive plans of Turkey should wake up USA and Europe not to sell advanced weapons /fighters to Turkey, to empower its aggressive plans.
"It is common sense that Eurofighters, F-16 or F-35 fighters, submarines etc. will be used mainly against Greece and Cyprus and even Israel. Greece must keep a qualitative military advantage over Turkey to preserve the peace!"
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