The decision of British conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to cancel his meeting with his Greek counterpart, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is making rounds on the internet, commenting that Downing Street’s move is derailing the Athens-London talks, adding more fuel in the diplomatic dispute that has raged for years between the two countries over the return of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece.
The derailment was accelerated by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ refusal to meet British Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden as an alternative to planned talks with Rishi Sunak amid an escalating dispute over the repatriation of the Parthenon sculptures.
In practice, however, the British Prime Minister could not deny “this behavior against Greece” on the part of Turkey, which prefers to buy frigates and 40 Eurofighters from the UK, with the defense cooperation of the two countries increasing over time. It is no coincidence that the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a few days earlier, officially submitted a proposal regarding the said aircraft to its British counterpart, while the two sides are in advanced discussions about the TFX and Eurofighter. We remind you that British engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce and its local partner Kale are working on the engine for the Turkish 5th generation fighter TF-X (KAAN), a prototype of which is expected to make its first flight in December 2023.
The billions that the UK economy intends to gain from the cooperation it has with Turkey are too many to be ignored.
Turkey needs the UK to acquire knowledge and high-tech and cutting-edge war products, and the UK can use Turkey as a vehicle country so as to return to the geopolitical chessboard through it, starting with the SE Mediterranean.
On the opposite side, Greece prefers European (French, German) military equipment – logical since it is a member of the Eurozone and the EU, but also American military equipment due to NATO. The UK considers itself “marginalized” in its companies’ efforts to wrest profitable armaments programs from Greece.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, among others, put the immigration issue on the agenda of his talks with the British Prime Minister. The UK already has an immigration deal with France (Dover-Calais agreement) and has other hardline EU leaders to deal with on this issue. The Greek Prime Minister had no excuse to raise immigration issues in the UK.
Both the British government and the corresponding Greek government, to mention that the “derailment” of diplomatic relations between Greece and Britain was caused by the Parthenon marbles, is a pretext, given that the discussions are between the British Museum and the Greek government.
Turkey, with this attitude of the UK towards Greece, is “taking revenge” for all that it has taken from the Greek-American lobby in the USA, which, in cooperation with the American-Israeli and American-Armenian lobbies respectively, do not allow Turkey to acquire reliable American fighters 4.5 (F-16V) and 5th (F-35) generation aircraft respectively.
