Greek authorities scale down security threat posed by Turks

Balkan instability more worrying than Turkey, defense report says

A Greek F16 fighter jet sits at Hania military airport in this file photo. The foremost threat to Greece’s security ‘is from the north,’ the country’s annual defense report said on Tuesday.

By Karolos Grohmann - Reuters

Greece has scaled down the threat that Turkey poses to its security for the first time in more than 30 years in its annual defense report.

Greece’s foremost threat “is from the north, which includes terrorism, arms dealing, international crime and instability,” said the report, approved by the defense committee and the government late on Tuesday. Turkey comes second.

“The report reflects the threats as perceived by the country’s military,” a defense ministry official told Reuters. “It considers the continuing instability in the Balkans as a serious threat, more serious than Turkey at this very moment.”

Greece shares northern and northwestern borders with Albania, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and Bulgaria.

Turkey comes second as a defense and security threat to Greece for the first time since the division of the island of Cyprus following the 1974 invasion by Turkish troops after a failed coup backed by Athens.

The report, a briefing sheet of which was made available yesterday, cites improved bilateral ties with Turkey and notes Greece’s support of its neighbor’s bid to join the European Union.

Athens is a staunch ally of Ankara’s drive to join the EU, saying membership would greatly improve bilateral relations, as well as add to stability in the eastern Mediterranean. “But (Turkey) has not shifted its policies regarding sovereign territory of our country and a sufficient deterring force must be maintained,” the report said.

Greece shares eastern land borders with Turkey and dozens of its Aegean islands are close to the western Turkish coast. Apart from Cyprus, Greece has other territorial disputes with Turkey in the Aegean. The two NATO members in 1996 almost went to war over an uninhabited islet in the southern Aegean.

Ties with Ankara have considerably improved in the past six years and the two neighbors have pledged to reduce their high defense budgets in a bid to boost confidence and unlock much-needed funds for social projects.