November 8,
2008: Since the end of the Cold War, Greece has shifted its military
orientation away from the north (and former Cold War opponents Bulgaria and
Russia), and towards the east. The major military objective now is preparation
for a war with fellow NATO member Turkey, a war Greece has little chance of
winning. The Aegean sea region, and Cyprus, supplies a number of potential
conflicts between Turkey and Greece. Despite this, the two nations have been
slowly developing a warmer relationship. But the underlying dispute goes back
nearly a thousand years.
As part of
the festering feud, Greece has been improving its air force (which is equipped,
like the Turkish air force, largely with U.S. built F-16 fighters) and
navy. The two countries share a 206
kilometer land border, which is fortified and manned by army units on both
sides.
Turkey is
much less concerned about a war with Greece, partly because there are still preoccupied
with Kurdish separatist rebels in eastern Turkey, and partly because the Turks
still consider themselves more formidable fighters than the Greeks. While
tensions have been reduced over the last decade, the Greek and Turkish air
forces still aggressively patrol the naval border, some of it disputed, in the
Aegean. This produces regular opportunities for armed incidents, and
escalation.
