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Turkey is playing a double game of propaganda and aggressive movements in the Kastellorizo area, creating a scene of war. Threats, aggressive movements and incendiary statements by Turkish officials and journalists make up an explosive mix, with extremely delicate balances and the risk of a hot-button episode grows every day.
The over-concentration of forces in the area requires extreme composure in order not to lose control. For many, the Ankara movements are reminiscent of the 1996 Imia crisis. In this context, the two-day visit of the President of the Republic Katerina Sakellaropoulou to the island of Akriti (today and tomorrow) is a resounding message with Ankara as main recipient.
Kastellorizo was attacked by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying that a ten square kilometer island could not claim 40,000 kilometers of influence, threatening Greece with war. He advised Athens to look at Turkish military operations over the past four years to understand what would happen if diplomacy failed. Erdogan’s rhetoric is being followed by Defense Minister Hulusi Akar and Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşo .lu, and the Kastellorizo area is in the spotlight. After all, this particular group of islands and their influence is what “traps” Turkey on its shores. 
Suspicious movements
Kastellorizo’s target for Ankara stands out in the central rhetoric that frames the tension. In recent days there have been strange movements with floating boats around the island, while the pro-government Turkish media follows the events, creating the appropriate propaganda atmosphere. Television crews congregate in Kas, the coast opposite the island, use inflatables or land on rocky islets and try to give their reports a pulse of war.
They talk about the challenges of the Greek forces outside Kastellorizo and describe scenes of military forces gathering in the area. At the same time, they accuse Greece of illegal militarization of the islands and violation of the Treaties, which, they claim, allows Turkey to challenge them. Turkey is trying to present Kastellorizo as isolated, in order to support the argument about “maximalist demands from the Greek side and legitimate claims from Turkey”.
Intimidation
The purpose of the propaganda is to create the feeling of a possible occupation of Kastellorizo by Turkish forces, with Ankara constantly projecting superiority towards Greece, believing that the threats could terrorize Athens and drag it into a negotiated regime.
In the same context, statements by Turkish analysts, such as Hasan Ozkan, a member of the Roumeli-Balkan Strategic Research Center, who question the state of the islands, citing the issue of demilitarization, and claim that Greece “has caused a legal vacuum on the islands and has become an “invader.” Respectively, the Nationalist Action Party of Devlet Bahceli, Erdogan’s partner, which is organizing marches of hatred and division, is calling for a review of the status quo of the Dodecanese and the future is she who will determine if we will lead to a conflict in the region ”.
Threats are intensifying in the field where the Turkish investigation “Oruts Reyes” and accompanying warships are drawing ever closer to Kastellorizo, with information leaking from Ankara stating that a new NAVTEX will arrive with a duration until September 25 and with the aim of intensifying the blackmail at the European Summit, which will focus on measures against Turkey.
The international factor
What the EU’s position will be and whether it will be able to accept sanctions against Turkey remains questionable. The United States continues to condemn Ankara’s movements at the level of statements, while Moscow watches the evolution, which looks for an opportunity for a break in NATO, which in turn sinks into a dangerous and deafening silence, reluctant to intervene. The crisis is also creating competition for weapons, unleashing an even more intense context. Erdogan instructs his warlords not to be the first to pull the trigger and calls for an unconditional dialogue from Athens. The international community also calls for dialogue and the reduction of tension. Athens also wants dialogue, provided that the Turkish ships are removed from its continental shelf. A dialogue that emerges as a very difficult diplomatic equation …
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