Low interest in Greece in Turkish elections

“Imagine if someone would launch an attack on the Athens airport, on Acropolis, on ancient Agora, with 2,500 missiles, within three weeks. It is unbelievable. Imagine that Turkey launches an attack tomorrow, you will have to defend yourselves and protect yourselves.”

That very illustrative statement to explain the intensity of the Israeli reaction against Hamas and consequently against the civilian population in Gaza, came from David Tzur a member of the Knesset and former police chief who was actually born in Istanbul 55-years-ago. His statement was part of a long interview to the Greek newspaper Proto Thema, published yesterday, as Mr. Tzur, besides being a member of Tzipi Livni’s Hatnuah Party, he is also the president of the Knesset’s Israel-Greece Friendship Committee.  

But this nightmarish scenario of Turks suddenly attacking the jewels of the ancient Greek world with thousands of missiles was an exception; an exception to the generally low interest in Greece over what has been recently going on in Turkey, including the upcoming presidential elections.

Admittedly, there is currently a hell of important news in our region.  Recent war fronts, such as Ukraine, with historical populous Greek communities now caught between a bloody confrontation and political dilemmas, have been keeping the Greek media, the public and diplomats busy for months.

The events in Gaza have refueled the traditional Greek sympathy for the Palestinian cause, although societal changes brought in by the dominance of the Islamist Hamas are often overlooked. Against an overflow of the humanitarian disaster stories, which highlight the “cruelty of the Israelis,” it is very hard to find an alternative analysis with the view of...