Akar presses revisionist Aegean claims

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar reiterated Ankara's revisionist agenda on Thursday regarding the status of the Aegean in an interview with the widely circulated nationalist Sozcu newspaper.

Akar reiterated that 16 Greek islands in the Eastern Aegean must be demilitarized according to international treaties signed by the two countries. He also claimed that 18 Greek islands and two Greek rocky islets belong to Turkey. "We will not allow anything to happen in the Aegean," he said in an apparent attempt to appeal to the nationalist sentiments of the paper's readership.

Sozcu has been at the forefront of scathing criticism heaped on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan regarding both the way the government has handled the Covid-19 pandemic and its policy in Syria and Libya. The newspaper's criticism against the government was surprising given that in the summer of...