Ankara eroding normalizaton with Athens

The threats by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan that the war in the Middle East would spread westward, especially to the Republic of Cyprus and Crete, are seen to constitute a clear rhetorical choice and yet another dissonance in the process of normalization of Greek-Turkish relations over the last 16 months. 

Referring to the crisis in the Middle East, Fidan not only adopted the rhetoric of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who targeted the Republic of Cyprus over Nicosia's supposed involvement in the war in Gaza, but extended the threat to Crete as well, saying "the fact that this place and the Greek islands are used for operations in the Middle East will not benefit the 'Greek-Cypriot Administration' [the Republic of Cyprus] nor Greece."

According to Kathimerini's Istanbul correspondent Manolis Kostidis, Fidan even noted that "our advice, what we told the...