Turkey’s Celik lambasts Greek Cypriots’ ‘shameful alliance’ with Israel

Turkey’s ruling AK Party’s spokesman Omer Celik on Tuesday night lambasted the “shameful alliance” formed between Greek Cypriots and Israel, while also criticising Greece for allowing “third parties” to “interfere” in its relations with Turkey.

“While Greece has the opportunity to resolve its problems with Turkey through negotiations, what does it gain by constantly pursuing alliances, with Israel and others, and continuously escalating anti-Turkey rhetoric?” he told a press conference.

He added that the Turkish government has told Greece to “let third countries and third parties not interfere” and to “let Turkey and Greece create the capacity to resolve their own problems through clear, transparent negotiations”.

“Instead, they constantly resort to these kinds of detours. It is important not to leave the main road. It is often said that leaving the main road ends with falling into a ditch. There is no need to repeat the same mistake,” he said.

He then turned his attention to Cyprus, saying that “of course, the alliance that the Greek Cypriot administration has formed with Israel is a shameful alliance”.

“Standing alongside a Zionist network which has committed so many massacres is their own business, but today, just as they are on the wrong side in their relations with Turkey, they are also not on the right side of history in terms of international issues,” he said.

He also made reference with France, which looks set to sign a status of forces agreement with the Republic of Cyprus and thus station its own troops on the island later this year.

“France’s assessments and actions in the entire region, from the Sahel to the Mediterranean, have been repeatedly demonstrated as flawed over the past few years,” he said, adding, “it would be in everyone’s best interest for France to abandon these approaches and to address its alliance with Turkey on a realistic basis”.

The source of Turkey’s upset is what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had in February described as a “hexagon of alliances”for his country, with Cyprus having been named as part of that “hexagon”.

“We will create an entire system, essentially a kind of hexagon of alliances, around or within the Middle East, including India, Arab national, African Nations, Mediterranean nations – Greece and Cyprus – and nations in Asia that I won’t detail at the moment,” he said. 

He added that the aim of this “hexagon of alliances” it to “create an axis of countries that see reality, the challenges, and the goals in the same way, in contrast to the radical axes”, listing those axes as “both the radical Shiite axis, which we have hit very hard, and also the emerging axis, the radical Sunni axis”. 

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan had offered terse words over the prospect during this month’s Antalya diplomacy forum, saying that Israel “met with the Greek Cypriot administration and formed an alliance against Muslim countries in the region”.

“We do not do what they do. We are looking for ways to extinguish the conflicts in our region, ensure economic progress, and bring stability to life,” he said.

The Greek Cypriot side’s political gravitation towards Israel had also been criticised by Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman during his appearance at the forum. 

“If an alliance is formed with a state which kills children, and this is done by violating the will and sovereignty of the Turkish Cypriot people, I will explain this to the entire international community. This is a violation of my sovereign rights, my equal sovereign rights,” he said.

Fidan’s comments provoked a response from Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, who posted to social media a video of himself meeting officials from various Muslim majority countries, including Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia.

Relations between Turkey and Israel soured in the aftermath of Israel’s offensive into Gaza in 2023, and have only continued to sour since Israel and the United States embarked on a new conflict with Iran at the beginning of last month.