Greece and Turkey (1999)

Today's cartoon is from 1999. Back in 1999 the secular state of Turkey was an ally of Israel and was warming up to Greece. Now, in 2011, the big news is that an increasingly Islamist and belligerent Turkey is threatening Israel. The news that Turkey is threatening Cyprus about Oil drilling in the Mediterranean is under-reported.

There's this from the Cyprus Mail:

New Turkish threats over drilling

TURKEY’S EU Affairs Minister Egemen Bagis yesterday issued a number of threats at Cyprus in daily including one to send naval vessels to the drilling area.

Bagis was quoted in Zaman newspaper as saying that when explorations were made in the past, ships from the Turkish military fleet “were quick to make their way to the area”. -more

And could Turkey's political shift be pushing Greece and Israel together? According to an Armenian Source:

Israel, Greece sign MoU in security sector

PanARMENIAN.Net - "Greek Defense Minister Panos Beglitis and his Israeli counterpart Ehud Barak, with whom he met in Jerusalem on Sunday, September 4 afternoon, starting his three-day official visit to Israel, signed a Cooperation Memorandum in the security sector, defencegreece.com reported.

“I come as my country’s Defense Minister to state our political will as a government, as well as the majority of the country’s political forces, for the two countries, the two governments, the two peoples, to work together so that we can further develop and deepen our bilateral relations in all sectors of mutual interest and concern,” Beglitis said.

This is the first visit by a Greek Defense minister to Israel and part of a cooperation memorandum agreed last year between Prime Minister George Papandreou and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while it is also taking place at a moment when Israel’s relations with Turkey are worsening, shaping new balance factors in the region of the Eastern Mediterranean." -more

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