Erdogan – Provocations against Greece to shirk off popular outcry over fires

At a time when Recep Tayyip Erdogan is taking hits for his failure to manage the crisis that has erupted in Turkey in recent days over large forest fires – which have claimed the lives of at least six people and burned hundreds of thousands of acres, Ankara has come up with the alleged death of a Turkish citizen in Evros supposedly by Greek fire in order to disorient public opinion.

Through leaks to Turkish media, late on Saturday night, the neighbor country spoke of a 43-year-old man who fell dead from shots that allegedly came from the Greek side, near the village of Antasarchanli in Edirne. Some of them leaked that the shotscame from Greek soldiers, while others from men in civilian clothes.

Greek diplomats estimate that such a claim is not just a coincidence, as catastrophic fires have been raging in Turkey for the last 24 hours, a development which has put the Turkish president and his government in a difficult position.

True to the tactics of provocation and distortion of reality – which culminated last spring in Evros when the Turks set up fake videos and spread fake news about dead and wounded refugees at the border – Ankara tried to turn attention to Greece in order to export the crisis it is experiencing at home.

Seeing that Tayyip Erdogan’s narrative of sabotage over the causes of the fires – without any evidence, however – does not work, Ankara adopted the allegations of the Turkish media that he was killed by Greek fire, calling the Greek ambassador to issue a demarche .

The Greek official proceeded, as noted in a statement of the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to completely refute the reports, thus rejecting the Turkish objections.

He pointed out to the Turkish side the “obligation of the latter to guard its borders and not to allow traffickers and illegal immigration”.

Erdogan “points to” a PKK sabotage

From the outset, the Turkish president framed the Kurds by presenting the scenario that the forest fires were due to an act of sabotage by the Kurdish separatist PKK guerrillas. In this context, he even ordered the investigation to identify the perpetrators of the “treacherous act”.

In the same vein, Turkish media reproduced the claim that the first suspect in the fires is the PKK. They claim that the destruction of the environment is one of the methods of revenge used by the organization, “whose supporters rushed to celebrate seeing the deadly flame that engulfed trees and animals.”

According to the Turkish TRT network, “The People’s United Revenge Militia (HBIM) is a PKK-linked group that has claimed responsibility for past fires. While the organization launched its first offensive in Turkey in 1984, it adopted forest burning as a strategy in the 1990s. organization sets fires in forests that attract Turkish tourists “.

According to the same publication, “the organization considers the fires to be an act of revenge against the Turkish state.”

Unfounded allegations

However, the non-existent allegations are adopted, not only by the Turkish media, but also by the official lips of former officials.

Indicatively, the retired Admiral Cihat Yagci (supporter of the “Blue Homeland” plan), who was invited to the TVNET channel, spoke of arson by the PKK, while he also railed against Greece.

“The fire in these areas was not caused by an accident or by negligence, there is an intention here. We are facing the terrorism of Greece and the PKK,” Yeni Safak reported.

Anger in Turkey

In any case, public dissatisfaction with the Turkish government is not going to be trivial this time, as was also the case during Mevlüt Çavuşoglu’s tour in Antalya the day before yesterday.

The Turkish Foreign Minister received not only disapproval, butwas the target of water thrown at his person from passers-by, while talking to citizens, in front of the cameras.

At the same time, Tayyip Erdogan – in an effort to quell public outrage – was visiting Marmaris, one of the affected by large forest fires.

There, in fact, he did not hesitate to distribute tea to the fire victims, provoking strong reactions from citizens and politicians.

Muharrem Ince, leader of the Homeland party, said: “You threw tea at the heads of people whose hearts are ‘burning’. Your condition is not a matter of policy, it is a condition that medical people have to deal with. I refer this president, who throws tea to people whose homeland is burning and whose heart is burning, to Turkish doctors.”