Erdogan escalates Rhetoric against Greece and Mobilizes Imams in his Re-Election Bid

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has led Turkey for the past 20 years, announced during a speech in Izmir on June 9 that he will seek re-election in next year's elections. As Turkey is facing a serious economic crisis, Erdogan, seeing his popularity falling rapidly in repeated opinion polls, is trying to win votes by escalating his rhetoric against Greece and by mobilizing the big network of imams to persuade Turkish expatriates to vote for him.

Speaking after watching military exercises in Izmir, on the same day he confirmed that he will run in the June 2023 elections, Erdogan increased tensions with Turkey's neighbor Greece, warning Athens to stop arming Aegean islands that do not have a military status.

In Turkey's view, the Aegean islands were given to Greece under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty and the 1947 Paris Treaty on the condition that they would not be armed. Ankara accuses Greece of having military units and weapons systems mainly on the Dodecanese islands in East Aegean.

"I warn Greece to avoid dreams, acts and statements that will result in regret. Come to your senses, " Erdogan said and added that "Turkey will not renounce its rights in the Aegean and will not back down from using rights that are established by international agreements when it comes to arming islands."

Erdogan's coalition partner and leader of the ultra-nationalist MHP Party Devlet Bahceli also accused Greece of escalating tensions and said that the Greeks are playing with fire.

"The question of the Dodecanese islands, which is the continuation of Anatolia, is a wound that has not yet closed," declared Bahceli and ominously added: "The stolen items must be returned to the owner, whether voluntarily or by force<...