It is impossible not to feel saddened when reading the statements made by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. Especially his recent UN speech—it was practically a heart-rending cry of anguish! We feel this sadness because Greece is the country of Yanis Varoufakis—who preceded him—and of many of our friends.
In his address to the UN General Assembly, Mitsotakis not only explained the mindset behind the domestic and foreign policies that have been driving his country toward a major catastrophe over the past year, but also demonstrated to the Greek people’s friends what kind of advice they might offer to shield the nation from this disaster.
Before proceeding, it would be appropriate to clarify the phrase “friends of the Greek people.” The Greek people certainly have many friends—foremost among them Turkey—but Israel and global Zionism are not among them. Is it even possible for us—the people of Anatolia and Thrace—not to be friends with the Greek people, who have been citizens of our country for centuries and are now our neighbors and NATO allies? Yet, for some reason, ever since the day they gained their independence, they have been led by individuals who pursued deeply flawed policies; these leaders turned them first into pawns of the British and Americans, and later into enemies of Turkey.
In his UN speech, Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, in a way, explained the reasons behind these misguided policies. Speaking about his country’s relations with Turkey, Mitsotakis said, “We cannot change geography; living side by side is our destiny.” In other words, if it were within its power, Greece would change its geography and move to a place where it wouldn’t be neighbors with Turkey! It cannot do this because, apparently, “such is its destiny!”
Micho! That business of changing geography is a thing of the very distant past. All the island villagers and the farmers of the Peloponnese once united to attack Anatolia and wipe out the Anatolian civilization at Troy—but that was thirty-four centuries ago! A lot of water has flowed along both shores of the Aegean since then; if, as an Achaean villager, you never read any history, did you not even watch the Odysseus film by Christopher Nolan and Matt Damon?
Let us set history aside and return to the subject at hand: Ibn Khaldun never actually said “Geography is destiny”; on the contrary, he argued that geography is merely the setting—not the determining factor. He wrote the thousand-page Muqaddimah (Greek: Prolegomenon)—which serves as a preface to his work titled History—to demonstrate that the will of nations and the political choices of leaders are the primary determining factors.
In short, what has befallen Greece—and what is yet to come—has always been, and will continue to be, the result of decisions made by Greek politicians. From Venizelos—who committed the folly of occupying Anatolia—to his son Sophoklis, the Papandreous, the Karamanlises, the Papadopouloses, your own father Constantine, and finally you, Mr. Kyriakos: the choices made by 56 prime ministers over the span of 96 years have reduced Greece to its current state—a satellite of Israel, an accomplice in the genocide in Palestine, and a base for Zionism in the south of Cyprus.
In his famous book, Ibn Khaldun states: “Historical events and their political consequences are the adverse outcomes of erroneous choices made by national leaders who fail to perceive the dynamic developments unfolding around them. Leaders often seek to mask their own incompetence by claiming that static factors—such as which countries they happen to neighbor—played a role in these catastrophes.”
But they cannot mask the reality, Mr. Mitsotakis. Geography is merely the foundation; if leaders fail to effectively organize state authority, institutions, and resources through social solidarity—what Ibn Khaldun termed asabiyyah (the bonds of social cohesion)—they risk becoming pariahs with no friends other than Netanyahu, much like yourself. The Greek media describes your embrace of Netanyahu as “spiraling into danger,” while economic publications warn that “Israel is playing with fire, but it is Greece that will get burned.” Thanks to Mitsotakis, every Greek-Turkish maritime dispute has morphed into a Turkish-Israeli conflict; Israeli sources now embellish their messages with the Greek slogan Ischys en te enosei (“Strength through unity”).
It is not geography or having Turkey as a neighbor that dooms Greece to a grim fate, but rather its inability to safeguard its own interests. In the end, they will simply blame geography!
