Are Greece and Turkey Really on the Verge of War?

(Image by Posterazzi, 2018, Turkey and Greece)

Blog Post by Allen Bryan:

This post by John Smith on The Greek Reporter was the headline article today, February 21, and the eye-catching title most likely plays a major part. While the time-sensitive title leads the reader to believe a war is inevitable within a few weeks the author eases the reader within a couple paragraphs that, at the moment, this isn’t likely to become a reality. The bulk of the article is about the current relationships Turkey has with its neighboring countries as well as internal issues. Greece itself is rarely talked about within the article but that will be talked about in more detail in the “perspectives” paragraph. The main conflict between the two Aegean neighbors, other than the historical conflicts that have been around for decades if not longer, stems from the 4 Turkish warplanes that entered Athen’s airspace on the 19th of this month. The author elaborates on the current tensions perfectly when he said “So, the Aegean tensions with Greece – always present – have been turbocharged by the simultaneous ratcheting up of tensions with Cyprus and inside Syria. This is what is giving them particular bite at this time.” While the title leads the reader to think this is a two-way article, as stated before it is mostly about Turkey. The rest of the article goes on to discuss Turkey’s current relationship with the EU, UN, and NATO as well as their current involvements within Syria and lastly the Kurdish issue within the country. All of this, paired with elections occurring within the next year, give the reader a sense of why these high tensions have led Turkey to take the actions they have.

The main pieces of evidence of the article rely on sources from within Turkey itself. When talking about Turkey’s involvement in Syria the article references Turkeys domestic media and its backing of the military operations. When talking about the Kurdish population and the issues surrounding that group of people the article talks about opinion polls conducted within the population which showed, according to the article, that the public seems to be more concerned with the Kurdish population and other internal issues than international ones. Much of the rest of the pieces of evidence are quotes from military personnel, political leaders, and from Erdogan himself (the current President of Turkey). When it comes to the validity of the evidence stated in the article, one can’t help but be a little bit skeptical of what he or she is reading. Not only because this is a Greek source talking about Turkey and, as a result, certain things and perceptions may be written in a particular way to influence the reader in one way or another, but also logistically in that there aren’t outside sources in which to fact check the statements made. Overall the article is written in more of an informational way rather than as a hit piece, or at least this is how it is perceived. One of the last things the article did (or in this case didn’t do) that was a little unnerving is the sourcing of the images used throughout the article. In order to find the source of the image used in this blog, which is the first image in the article as well, further research had to be done. This lack of information leads the reader to question not only the validity of the article but also where the images originated, who isn’t being credited, if this was done purposefully or if the author neglected to do this, and if so, why?

The perspective for this article is more straightforward, meaning it is from the perspective of Greece itself. The author takes more of an outsider, outward, perspective when talking about the relationship and the current issues between Greece and Turkey, but for the rest of the article when talking about Turkey it becomes apparent that this information is being targeted towards a Greek audience. One difference between this article and the other two that have been covered in these blogs is the use of social media and the focus on the impact on Greece. For example, the first article used tweets and images from Greek citizens and of the country itself. This article lacked this, which could have been useful especially when talking about the public opinion of the Turkish people. This is where the perspective of the article becomes apparent in that with the first two articles the primary focus was on domestic issues and because of this it was far easier for the authors to use inside sources, methods, and use of certain forms of media than this, primarily outward, international focused article. That being said, as stated previously, the use of sources and all forms of media throughout Turkey would have given this article more validity, significance, and overall would have made it “meatier”, if you will.

Thank you.