Turkey: History is fair game in domestic politics

ANKARA

Turkey’s momentous history and foreign policy issues are both fair game for the domestic policy arena, and a Greek claim to the contrary is “odd,” said Turkey’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday.

In a statement, Hami Aksoy, ministry spokesperson, told how Greek forces had tried to occupy Turkish Anatolia in the wake of World War I, and also how Athens later paid Turkey compensation due to damage the Greek Army did during the war.

Greek Foreign Ministry criticisms are "in no way compatible with our environment of confidence and good neighborly relations” and are “odd” in both timing and content, said Aksoy.

On the campaign trail Sunday for upcoming local elections, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke about Turkey’s victory over Greece in the 1919-1923 Turkish War of Independence, when Turkey defeated foreign powers seeking to divide and colonize Turkey.

In response, Greece’s Foreign Ministry criticized what it called “the instrumentalization of foreign policy to serve domestic political expediencies” and using “history with terms that are offensive to neighboring countries.”

*Writing by Erdogan Cagatay Zontur