During the Ottoman period, Jews who lived under Turkish rule in different regions for roughly 400 years and Greek/Greek Christian Orthodox could not get along.

There was a 1500 year-old blood feud between them because of Jesus and Judas.

The feud increased after Greek independence. In 1821, nearly 5000 Jews were massacred together with the Turks in the uprisings in the Peloponnese.

The Jews were forced to flee to Corfu. The religious hostility between them and the loyal Ottoman Jews grew even more as the Greeks were caught up in the dream of Megali Idea after independence.

Blood Libel

One of the most important elements that fed the Judeo-Orthodox hostility was the blood libel. With the lie that Christian children were killed to make Easter bread, the fanatical Greek made the Jews scapegoats, forcibly confiscating their property or forcing them to emigrate.

In 1840, the blood libel incident on the island of Rhodes under Ottoman rule was prevented in a short time before it led to a massacre of Jews. On the other hand, traditional Christian artisans and merchants were disturbed by the Ottomans’ 1856 Tanzimat reforms, granting legal equality to non-Muslim subjects and Jews and providing economic opportunities. For this reason, the 1856 Istanbul Balat blood libel incident took place shortly after the Tanzimat Edict. Thus, anti-Jewish rumors and violence were revived. Since the 1870s, such anti-Semitism has occurred almost every year in Western Anatolia and the Aegean in 19^th century. In addition to the Greeks, Armenian and Bulgarian minorities often participated in these attacks and looting. Anti-Semitism would unite them.

On the other hand, after the independence of Greece, the western powers would intervene from time to time in the blood libel incidents that took place in the lands under its sovereignty. For example, in 1847, Greek attacks on Jews living in Athens and Piraeus began during Easter. The house of David Pacifico, a wealthy Sephardic Jew from Piraeus, was attacked. Pacifico, who barely escaped with his life, took refuge in the British Embassy as he was also a British citizen. The British government gave a note to the Greek government to compensate for the damage done to him. When the Greek Government did not meet these demands until 1850, the battleships of the British Mediterranean Fleet blockaded the port of Piraeus in 1850. The economy has come to a standstill. Compensation was paid promptly.

During the Cretan Revolt of the Greeks, in 1868, when some Jews celebrated the success of the Ottoman army on the island in Eyüp, Istanbul, they were provoked by the Greek priests and serious harassment took place. Since the 1870s, the hostility of the Greeks living under Ottoman rule to the Jews increased with the pampering of the Greeks, who received the support of the West in every field. However, these events, on the other hand, made the Ottoman administration vulnerable to the intervention of the westerners. For this reason, the Ottoman administration later took very serious measures to prevent such crises and protected the Jews from the Greeks. Despite these measures, there were violent incidents in many cities and towns, especially in Western Anatolia, Macedonia and Thrace, due to the blood libels that are put forward every year before Easter. Among them, in 1872 and 1873, there were blood libels in Izmir, Thessaloniki, the Thrace region, Crete/Heraklion and Edirne. In 1874, with the discovery of the body of a young Greek girl in Balat and Fener, the events progressed to serious dimensions but were prevented without major losses. In the Balkan War, when the Ottomans left Thessaloniki on November 9, 1912, the greatest damage was inflicted on the Jewish neighborhoods. The Greek burned them all. In this city, which has almost the largest Jewish population (61,000 Jews out of 157,000), none of them were granted the right to stay. Jews were killed, along with tens of thousands of Turks. Most of them fled either to Izmir or Italy. For this reason, during the Armistice period and the War of Independence, the Jewish community of the Ottoman Empire did not cooperate with the invading Greeks and supported the War of Independence until the end.

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Turkish army attacking Arkadi monastery (Public Domain)

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Greece Is the Latest Mediterranean State to Recognize Israel

Religious sociology and historical heritage have always played an important role in Greece’s view of Jews and Israel. However, Greece’s hostility to Türkiye and its proxy role in US/EU geopolitics have changed its approach over the years. Greece is the last country in the Mediterranean basin outside the Arab world to recognize Israel. Athens recognized Israel on March 15, 1991, 42 years after Türkiye, after establishing its first diplomatic relations with the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization) in 1981. There were many reasons for the late recognition. After the Second World War, Greece generally pursued an anti-American policy. As a state dependent on the Arabs in energy, it preferred to stay close to the Arabs without confronting them. Against Türkiye’s traditional policy of distancing itself from the Arab World, Greece has developed close relations with these countries. Israel, on the other hand, is the American Garrison state in the Middle East, which was created by Britain but formally established and protected by the United States at the end of the Second World War. It has been given the task of being the most important stronghold of the USA in the Mediterranean and the Middle East basin, both in energy geopolitics and in the rimland geopolitics.

Seeking Balance with Türkiye

After the Marshall Aid Plan, the Truman doctrine and NATO membership, Türkiye, which turned into a proxy of the United States, was given the task of staying close to and supporting Israel. Türkiye continued this role until 2009 in a way that did not confront the Arab world. For this reason, one of the main reasons for Greece’s late recognition of Israel was the search for a balance with Türkiye. As Türkiye moved closer to Israel, Greece moved away. For example, in the 1967 Arab Israeli war, Greece stood by the Arabs. It is known that in the 1973 Yom Kippur war, Israel won the war by attracting Washington to its side with the threat of using nuclear weapons against the Arabs in an environment where it would almost have suffered a major blow if American help did not come, and by receiving great military aid thanks to the Nickel Grass operation. In this war, Greece did not open its airspace and airfields to American military planes that brought aid to Israel from American bases in Europe. On the contrary, it opened its airspace to Soviet planes providing support to Egypt. Similarly, in the Mediterranean, Greece gave some privileges to the Soviet 5. Eskadra including permanent anchorages within territorial waters and support facilities.

The New Era that Began in 1979

With the coming to power of an anti-American regime in Iran after the 1979 revolution and the invasion of Afghanistan by the USSR, a year later, the United States suffered a great damage in the rimland geopolitics. He could not tolerate any more losses. With the Camp David Accords, Israel and Egypt were brought closer first.

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Close up of Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter and Anwar Sadat at Camp David (Public Domain)

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With the September 12 coup d’état in 1980, both the transition to the neoliberal economic order (January 24 decisions) and Ankara’s complete surrender to American policies were ensured in Türkiye. Thus, a front was established in the Eastern Mediterranean basin against Arab nationalism and Iran’s sphere of influence with the triangle of Egypt, Israel and Türkiye. With this development, Ankara, which already had good relations with Israel in all areas since 1948, indirectly caused Greece to move closer to the Arab world. Greece’s accession to the EU in 1981 brought about a gradual change in its view of Israel. The emergence of new balances after the Cold War enabled Greece to turn to a new foreign policy that was completely pro-US and pro-EU. There were no more two poles. If the U.S. won the Cold War, it meant that Israel would become stronger in the region. But most importantly, the initiation of a comprehensive peace process with direct negotiations between Israel and Arab countries and Palestinians at the conference held in Madrid in 1991 jointly by the USA and the USSR played a role in Greece’s recognition of Israel.

Meanwhile, Turkish Israeli cooperation was developing after the Cold War. The main factors in this development are Jewish support for lobbying efforts against Greece, the Greek Cypriot Administration and Armenia in the USA; The start of the Palestinian peace process, intelligence sharing and a free trade agreement played an important role in the fight against terrorism. The rapprochement with Israel in the field of defense, which started during the Özal period, entered a new phase with the Military Training and Cooperation Agreement signed in 1996. Türkiye and Israel started to cooperate in joint exercises, military training and defense industry projects. Until the “One Minute” crisis in 2009, which developed against Israel’s disproportionate power policy against the Palestinians, which amounted to a massacre, Turkish Israeli relations were in harmony with the interests of the United States and Israel, even though a political Islamist party was in power. However, the two countries, which increased their national power, were already on the course of conflict. However, they were not aware of it.

The Kardak Crisis and the Greek-Israeli Rapprochement

With the Kardak crisis with Türkiye in January 1996, Greece saw that it was necessary to get much closer to the United States. Before the Kardak Crisis turned into a war, it resulted in the American Chief of General Staff calling the Turkish Chief of General Staff to de-escalate. It was clear that Türkiye would no longer allow Greek fait accomplis in the Aegean. Greece, with its national power, could not resist Türkiye. It would put pressure on Türkiye through its NATO and EU membership and its strategic partnership with the United States. The U.S. meant Israel. For this reason, it was inevitable for Greece to get closer to Israel, especially after the Kardak crisis. These developments triggered the cooperation and rapprochement between the Greek and Jewish lobbies in the United States.

Eastern Mediterranean Gas and Greek-Israeli Rapprochement

After the 2000s, the emergence of natural gas reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean inevitably led to a crisis between Türkiye, Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration, and therefore between the USA and the EU and Türkiye. In this process, Israel inevitably stood by the US and the EU. In 2004, the Greek Cypriot Administration was illegally admitted to the EU. The fledgling Turkish government applauded this geopolitical siege with the slogan “yes, my mother“. However, the EU extended its eastern borders to Israeli territorial waters, and the Judeo-Christian alliance bordered the sea for the first time. With this enlargement, the EU has gained a great geopolitical advantage not only against Türkiye, but also against Russia. Not only did Cyprus have hydrocarbon resources on its continental shelf, but it was also adjacent to rich Israeli resources. Israel has now become a partner in the EU’s energy security against Russian gas. New geopolitical and economic conditions have brought the Greek and Greek Orthodox, who had slaughtered the Jews 100 years ago, together with Israel over energy, blood libel was transforming into a blood brotherhood.

In 2012, Israel and the Greek Cypriot Administration (Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus) signed a maritime delimitation agreement in the Eastern Mediterranean. The trio has developed defense and security cooperation against Türkiye to the extent of conducting joint exercises.

On January 28, 2016, the Greek Cypriot Administration, Greece and Israel agreed on the advancement of joint energy projects that will contribute to the energy security of the EU and all three countries at the end of the tripartite talks at the level of prime ministers. While the Islamic world, which has the same prophet and religion, was heading for a Shiite and Sunni showdown and strangulation under the conditions of western imperialism, the Judeo-Christian alliance was shaping the Eastern Mediterranean through energy geopolitics. In other words, while the clash of civilizations is being transformed into an intra-civilizational conflict in the Islamic world, religious identities that have been hostile to each other for thousands of years are getting closer to each other.

In this context, after 2009 and especially after the Mavi Marmara raid in 2010 with the big mistakes of the government, the Israeli Greek rapprochement reached unprecedented levels with the suspension of relations with Israel over the Palestinian issue, which has always provided it with great supporters in domestic politics. While the main reason for Ankara’s Israeli demarche should have been the division of maritime jurisdiction areas and the situation of the TRNC, the real reason was religious. Because in the same period, Türkiye said yes to the Annan Plan that would withdraw our troops from Cyprus and put an end to the TRNC, started the Kurdish Rapprochement (Açılım Süreci) that would lead to the establishment of a puppet Kurdish state, which is Israel’s biggest project, and the FETÖ conspiracy cases, which would also serve Israeli geopolitics, were carried out with government support and opposition silence, while the Seville map was not heard.

On the other hand, in 2013, the Hellenic-Israeli Alliance was established in the US Congress. This alliance aimed to promote energy, security and economic cooperation between Greece, Israel and Cyprus. In addition, organizations such as the American Hellenic Institute (AHI) and the American Jewish Committee (AJC) have increased their joint lobbying activities in the United States. The coordinated efforts of both lobbies played a major role in determining the Eastern Mediterranean policy of the United States. Relations with Egypt after 2014 also hit rock bottom with the current government’s closeness to the Muslim Brotherhood. Relations between Greece and Israel developed rapidly after 2019, that is, after the signing of the Maritime Jurisdiction Delimitation Memorandum of Understanding with Libya on November 27, 2019, in which Türkiye’s Blue Homeland theses came to the fore. Egypt has also developed relations with Greece to the extent of almost forming a military alliance, and worst of all, on August 6, 2020, Egypt made a maritime delimitation agreement with Greece, contrary to Turkish theses. In this process, there has been an increase in joint exercises, especially between the Greek and Israeli Air Forces. Israeli planes began to rehearse a possible Iranian attack on the Israeli Greek route, using the Cypriot airspace in the Mediterranean, which they simulated as a round-trip distance.

After 2009, Israel participated in all the naval and air exercises against Türkiye carried out by Greece. Athens also plans to purchase air defense missile systems from Israel against Türkiye. Another approach to Israel’s view of Greece is that it offers a safe settlement option for many Israeli civilians. In this country, which is a proxy of the United States, a member of the EU and does not speak out against the Israeli genocide in Gaza, Israeli citizens have serious real estate purchases and investments. Similarly, Israel has serious real estate purchases in Southern Cyprus and the TRNC. Unfortunately, no precautions were taken in the TRNC despite creating serious sensitivities against these purchases.

(PNAC) New American Century Project

We can also evaluate all these developments within the scope of the “(PNAC) Project for New American Century” created by the neocons in the USA in 1997. This group was the architects of the post-9/11 era in 2001. All the developments that took place with the American military power in the Middle East and North Africa were the work of the neocons who emerged from the joint Zionist and evangelical chemistry. Let us also remember that this group, including Netanyahu, prepared the “Clean Break” report for Israel in the same year, which prepared the conditions for today’s genocide in Gaza for Israel. Greece is aware that it cannot succeed in a geopolitical showdown with Türkiye with its non-increasing population, non-existent industry, and foreign dependency in the defense industry without taking the USA and EU countries with it. For this reason, it has no choice but to get closer to Israel, which is allied with both blocs, and to remain silent about Israel’s genocidal attacks in the region. As a matter of fact, Greece is one of the first countries to send a voluntary war ship to the US-led Prosperity Guardian operation against the Yemeni Houthis, as well as to the EU’s Aspides operation.

Kürecik X Band Radar Station in Turkiye

At the 2010 NATO Lisbon Summit, Türkiye approved the installation of the American X-Band radar, the most important sensor of the NATO Ballistic Missile Defense system, on its territory. This radar system, which is operated under the control of the US European Forces (USEUCOM), provides information to the American SM 3 high-altitude air defense missile systems, which are capable of intercepting extra-atmospheric missiles installed in Romania and Poland. Although Türkiye has granted permission to use this radar station only for NATO purposes, it does not have the technical and administrative control to prevent the information from being sent to Israel by USEUCOM. Therefore, it is a great contradiction to allow this radar to operate on our own territory while criticizing Israel in the loudest terms. For this reason, the USA first withdrew from the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Agreement in 2002 and thus these systems could be established. Unfortunately, Türkiye has been able to show its ability to fall into this trap next to Russia, which has the world’s largest nuclear inventory. Only through the existence of this radar, Greece sees that there is no crisis in Türkiye’s relations with Israel at a vital level. Greece also sees that by organizing a few rallies in Istanbul and making the religious masses chant slogans against Israel, the energy of the society is taken away. He sees that this situation reveals the fact that Türkiye has surrendered to the pressures of the US and the EU. For this reason, Athens does not hesitate to take steps that will force Türkiye to make concessions in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Syria, Israel and Türkiye

After 2011, Türkiye played a leading role in the disintegration of the monolithic Syrian state in the south, in line with US (Operation Timber Sycamore) and Israeli policies. The U.S., acting in cooperation with Islamic and ethnic terrorist organizations produced by the U.S. and having the apparatus to create a crisis through the scourge of terrorism in the geographies it wants in Eurasia, has never considered Türkiye’s geopolitical interests, but Ankara has fallen into this trap due to domestic political showdowns.

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The port in Aqaba, Jordan was an important route for Timber Sycamore weaponry that entered Syria. (Licensed under CC BY 2.0)

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On the one hand, we fought the PKK, on the other hand, we approved and supported the destruction of the biggest buffer state between us and Israel and today Türkiye has come to the stage of discussing scenarios of conflict with Israel in Syria. While the fact that Israel is the United States itself cannot be ignored, there seems to be no geopolitical explanation for the role we have played in the dismemberment of Syria. Just as the autonomous Kurdish state was established in the north of Iraq with the Provide Comfort Operations after 1991, this time an autonomous Kurdish state is being established in the north of Syria. The sad thing is that the main opposition has also remained silent on these developments. While these are happening in our south, a new Kurdish Rapprocahment (Açılım) is being carried out within our own country with the support of both the government and the opposition. This trend is pregnant with very dangerous consequences. These capitulation policies experienced during the period of collapse of the US and the EU show that geopolitical readings are very wrong on both fronts. Türkiye is in a position similar to those on the eve of the First World War, in which some politicians sought an alliance with Britain and France, who decided to destroy the Ottoman Empire and dismember it. Both countries had sent our delegations back almost mockingly. At that time, the Ottomans had no choice but to approach Germany. Because it was also a target that was intended to be dismantled. Now history is repeating itself again. The financial and economic crisis is leading to Turkish geopolitical concessions that are difficult to reverse. At a time when geopolitical conditions are completely in our favor, we are acting on the side of the colonialist, genocidal US and EU hegemony. What a pity.

Turkish-Greek Hostility

Greece was conceived in 1830 to provide a geopolitical, sociological and cultural support for the imperial order of the period. It was created as a geopolitical buffer state that would surround the Ottoman Empire through the Aegean Sea and the Balkans. At a time when capitalism was evolving into the stage of imperialism, which had completed the First Industrial Revolution, they became the complementary value of a strong Europe that was suffering from identity problems. Europe added Greek Philosophy and Hellenistic heritage to the Christian religion and Roman Law legs of the western culture with which it identified itself, although they did not represent it. We are talking about a community that always needs enemies.

On the other hand, hostility towards Turks has always continued unrevealed. The Turkish Greek friendship between 1923 and 1955 is a false phase of Greek history. Because it was not the Turks who changed in that period, but the Greeks. However, they later restored to the factory settings. After the Cyprus events, Turkish hostility could be kept alive at the highest level under all circumstances and turned into a kind of reason for existence. This feature of Greece has always been used according to Christianity and Hellenism and the geopolitical interests of the West and has been kept open to provocation. However, it is necessary to add to this conviction the culture of hatred of the older brother with whom he lived for 450 years.

We can also compare this hatred to the hostility of religious extremists to Mustafa Kemal, or to the Russophobia of today’s Ukrainians. The weak can keep the sense of survival alive by hating the strong or by being made conscious with unrealistic goals. The common point of those who are worried that they can be swallowed by Türkiye in Greece today and those who believe that they can plant the Greek flag in Hagia Sophia is fierce Turkish hostility. Türkiye should act by recognizing these facts. As long as we remain in NATO, it is not possible to establish friendship with Greece. The Greek Orthodox can be friends with the Jews they hate again through geopolitical interests, but it is not desirable for the Greek to be friends with the Turk. Because in this case, the Turkish Straits and the Aegean Sea, which are the most important waterways of Eurasia, would be out of the control of the Anglo-Saxon hegemony. For this reason, both countries should be kept hostile in such a way that they do not fight each other, and if they reach the stage of war, this situation should be prevented by force of arms if necessary. In the meantime, Türkiye should be kept away from the Eastern Mediterranean with various moves. This was achieved with the La Rosaline A merchant ship boarding incident in the Mediterranean in November 2020. On the Turkish continental shelf, no leaf has moved in the last 5 years. Now they plan to move on to the second phase.

The Phase of Not Recognizing the Turkish Continental Shelf

From March 31 to April 11, 2025, a major air exercise was held at the Andravida air base, located in the west of the Peloponnese peninsula in Greece, with the participation of 11 countries. IMEC (India-Middle East Economic Corridor) countries of the 2023 G7 summit have participated in the exercise as well as countries that are members of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum established in the Mediterranean in 2019, except for the Palestinian Authority, with warplanes or staff. The most interesting was the case of Qatar. This country, which is a close friend of Türkiye, flew arm in arm with Israeli jets at a time when Israel was accused of bribing members of the Netanyahu government (Qatargate).

Meanwhile, Greece has reinstated the Great Sea Interconnector seabed power line project, which it has been carrying out with Israel and Southern Cyprus since 2017 in order not to recognize Türkiye’s continental shelf boundaries in the Eastern Mediterranean, in recent months. In the project, which was tendered to the French company NEXAN, the Italian research vessel was warned and removed while operating in our waters in July 2024. This time, Greece is taking measures to prevent a similar move.

On March 31, 2015, the newspaper Ekathimerini reported that the Greek Foreign Minister said that the ship would be escorted by Greek warships to prevent this situation, and that they would also receive indirect support from Israel in complaining to the United States about Türkiye; the French navy also declared that it would provide indirect support. This issue was discussed at the level of the Israeli Greek prime ministers, who met in Jerusalem a few weeks ago, as well as at the level of the Foreign Ministers of Southern Cyprus, Greece and Israel, who recently met in Athens. We can say that if the Greek NAVTEX is published on this issue soon, the situation will seriously escalate.

On the other hand, the friendship and cooperation between the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus and Israel has increased in the military field on the island of Cyprus, in the sea and airspace, especially after 2014, with the increasing joint exercises and defense industry projects, including the purchase of the Barak Air Defense System after 2022. The Eastern Mediterranean Security and Energy Partnership Act passed by the US Congress in 2019 and with the trilateral defense and security agreement signed in 2023 between Greece, Greek Cypriot Cyprus and Israel, the overall relations were moved to the 3+1 format. Moreover, with the announcement of the IMEC Economic Corridor in 2023, the US has come closer to this trio.

At the beginning of 2025, the Eastern Mediterranean security and energy partnership, which was enacted in the US in 2019, has been elevated to a new status under the Counterterrorism and Maritime Security initiative in the Eastern Mediterranean. In short, Türkiye is under the pressure of the USA, Israel and the EU through Greece and the Greek Cypriot Administration in the Eastern Mediterranean as never before in its history. In Syria, it is in the confusion of having fallen into the trap of the US and Israel of its own volition. Ankara, which has alienated Russia from itself in Syria, has no friends to stand by in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece and Israel are aware of this. While the government and the opposition are competing and expressing their commitment to the US and the EU, they should not ignore that we will face very serious and vital developments both in the Mediterranean and in the east of the Euphrates. While Türkiye is losing its home front in the labyrinths of domestic politics, the outside is working like a bee. The danger is enormous. The problem is that the public is not aware of this danger.

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This article was originally published on Mavi Vatan.

Ret Admiral Cem Gürdeniz, Writer, Geopolitical Expert, Theorist and creator of the Turkish Bluehomeland (Mavi Vatan) doctrine. He served as the Chief of Strategy Department and then the head of Plans and Policy Division in Turkish Naval Forces Headquarters. As his combat duties, he has served as the commander of Amphibious Ships Group and Mine Fleet between 2007 and 2009. He retired in 2012. He established Hamit Naci Blue Homeland Foundation in 2021. He has published numerous books on geopolitics, maritime strategy, maritime history and maritime culture. He is also a honorary member of ATASAM.  

He is a regular contributor to Global Research. 

Featured image is from Mavi Vatan

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