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Western press reports revealed that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan tried to fabricate a military accident with Greece with the aim of “increasing its popularity”, and that it could have caused further tension in the eastern Mediterranean region.
The German newspaper Die Welt said in a report titled “Erdogan’s Calculated War” that the Turkish president had asked army commanders to sink a Greek ship in the eastern Mediterranean.
The newspaper quoted military sources as saying that Erdogan stipulated that they would avoid killing anyone in the operation.
When the army generals rejected this proposal, one of them offered another option, which is to shoot down a Greek fighter so that it doesn’t kill the pilot and give him a chance to jump out of it.
But the generals also rejected this proposal.
The newspaper believed that “if the matter had been left in the hands of the Turkish president, his forces would have sunk a Greek ship some time ago and it could lead to war.”
Die Welt said Erdogan turned to this option after his popularity had waned, in a fact that comes less than two years before the presidential elections in Turkey.
The German newspaper saw that the Turkish president wants a calculated escalation that does not amount to a war, but rather to ignite an external conflict to increase his popularity and stay in power, noting that this matter is more important to Erdogan than the pursuit of gas and oil in the eastern Mediterranean.
The popularity of Erdogan and his government has recently declined due to many factors, the most important of which is the deterioration of the economic situation in the country.
For months, Erdogan has maintained a high level of tension with Greece, to the point that his officials began to talk about the possibility of a war with the neighboring country.
There have been disputes between Athens and Ankara over a number of issues for decades, ranging from disputes over the rights to exploit mineral resources in the Aegean Sea to the shores of Cyprus.
The tension increased with Turkey’s announcement to demarcate the borders with the Libyan government of Fayez al-Sarraj at the end of last October, in an agreement in which Ankara tried to “swallow” the Greek islands in the Mediterranean.
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