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Maintaining tension in Greek-Turkish relations evolves in an extremely costly process, in which the economies of the two countries are forced to cope with a prolonged supply of their war machine, spending huge sums, the most of which end in chaos.
In any case, maintaining an army at combat level is in itself a significant burden on the budget of any state, especially when it is asked to operate for a long time in a state of readiness for war, which is largely similar. to the situation they are in. today the Armed Forces of Greece and Turkey.
With much of their fleet offshore, their border units on high alert, and their fighter jets in the air on a daily basis, the two countries must put their hands in their pockets.
For Greece, the specific cost is … “inelastic” but relatively controlled. On the one hand there is a permanent threat and therefore it must, without discounts, defend itself, on the other hand because the disposition of its forces is defensive, it has time to evaluate the adversary’s intentions and take specific actions.
In this context, and according to estimates by Pentagon officials, with the country’s war machine operating at full capacity and with a large number of ships out of port, the daily cost to the state body of the current effort to counter the Turkish threat it is approximately 1 million euros. These include fuel for ships and planes, meals, staff overtime, spare parts, and additional or emerging logistical needs that arise.
cost
Therefore, the Greek-Turkish crisis that has plagued Greek-Turkish relations for some 40 days, due to the departure of the Turkish research vessel Oruc Reis, has cost EDs, since the first relevant NAVTEX came into force, the 7/21, to date more than 35 million euros, of which about 28 correspond to the Navy and the rest to the PA and SX
In this context and in order to save resources, the Ministry of National Defense intends to cancel this year the large interdisciplinary military exercise “Parmenion” and the night stage of “Velissarios”, as well as the armored exercise “Caballo de Troy “. The logic is that the Armed Forces have been almost entirely on hold for a month, so it is not necessary to implement the corresponding planning, to save the corresponding funds.
Without a doubt, the greatest weight of the current mobilization of the Armed Forces is borne by the Navy. The Greek side, aware that a particularly hot summer is approaching for Greek-Turkish relations, had been careful in time to save energy and financial resources, making the most of the general lockdown due to the coronavirus.
The order given, since the beginning of the general quarantine, at the controls of the fleet ships, A / GEN Mr. St. Petrakis, was that the movements of the PN ships were limited to what is absolutely necessary to save resources to be used later, as it finally happened. “One of the main objectives of the Turkish side is, through continued mobilizations and surveillance of the Greek war machine, to overload as much as possible the budget of Greece and the Greek Armed Forces, creating a climate of economic suffocation.
“Ankara’s intentions are to create the conditions for Athens to be the first to make a mistake,” say officials of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressing the certainty that if necessary, more money will be disbursed in the Armed Forces codes to keep the fighting spirit.
Turkey
On the other hand, as regards the Turkish war machine, its maintenance costs appear to have increased slightly due to the mobilization of Oruc Reis. This particular ship, under normal circumstances, needs about 50 thousand euros a day to operate, an amount that increases even more depending on the type of recognition.
Turkey, however, has an additional problem, as the absence of a strong currency has led to a stagnation in its economy. In just 5 years, the Turkish lira fell against its strength against the euro from 3.40 in 2016 to 8.60 today. At the same time, the already bad situation is exacerbated by the fact that the Turkish treasury appears to have run out of foreign exchange reserves lately.
To the above, of course, we must add that Turkey, in addition to the “cold war” it is waging against our country, has two more open fronts in Libya and Syria, a fact that puts even more pressure on the budget of its own Armed Forces . .
