German foreign minister did the right thing in Ankara

Even the itinerary of her trip suggested things were going to get difficult. Heading to both Greece and Turkey, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was making her way through a diplomatic minefield.

Euphemistically, her journey was about the southeastern flank of the Western defense alliance, NATO. And the German foreign minister never tired of stressing the importance of solidarity among allies in response to the Russian war against Ukraine.

The reality here is different though. The Greek-Turkish relationship, which has been fractured for decades, has recently hit rock bottom yet again. It's reminiscent of the 2020 crisis, when Ankara and Athens almost went to war over their dispute over maritime borders in the eastern Mediterranean.

At that time, former German Chancellor Angela Merkel helped work a way out of the crisis, along with other European leaders.

New government, new opinions

But two years later, the world is a different place.

Merkel is no longer Chancellor. The new government in Berlin has a foreign minister from the Green party, who has some different — ​​that is, more critical — opinions on Turkey.

Berlin's policy towards Ankara is still guided by the goal of preventing Turkey from drifting further away from Europe. The war in Ukraine has confirmed Turkey's important, and in some respects, unique, position.

The Turkish government is aware of its geostrategic weight in this situation and it is pushing the political envelope. This is reflected in a newly aggressive tone to Ankara's foreign policy. This is directed at Syria and also at neighboring Greece.

Baerbock experienced first hand how poor Greek-Turkish relations currently are. The joint press conference with her Turkish colleague Mevlut Cavusoglu offered plenty of examples, and all in front of the TV cameras too.

The human rights violations and the ongoing harassment of activist Osman Kavala by the Turkish judiciary became a minor topic. Instead the Greek-Turkish issue was at the center of tensions.

To the delight of her Greek hosts, Baerbock left no doubt regarding Berlin’s position on the Ankara-instigated dispute over islands in the eastern Aegean.

"Greek islands — Lesbos, Chios, Rhodes and many, many others — are Greek territory, and no one has the right to raise questions over that,” Baerbock told journalists. 

Germany fell for 'Greek propaganda'

The Turkish foreign minister made his point in a different way. At the joint press conference, he ignored diplomatic etiquette and praised former Chancellor Merkel. Under her leadership, Germany had been an "an honest mediator" with a "balanced attitude." Today, he said, Germany and the EU had fallen for Greek propaganda.

Clearly something has changed and it goes beyond speeches and etiquette.

However that is less about Germany and more about Ankara's new more aggressive posture towards Greece.

When members of the Turkish government and their allies quite openly question the territorial sovereignty of an EU member state, then any member of the German government really has no choice: they support Greece. Really Baerbock only said what was politically and diplomaticly logical.

However it is wrong to accuse the German foreign minister of being uncritical towards Greece. In Athens, Baerbock found frank words for the Greek refugee and asylum policy too.

The minister also rejected Athen’s demand for reparations for the period of the German occupation during the Second World War. When it came to the delivery of modern German submarines to Turkey, something that is a thorn in the Greek side, Baerbock made it clear that Athens and Berlin had "differing opinions" on the topic.

Interestingly, there is one thing Athens and Ankara do agree on. Neither Greece nor Turkey are particularly interested in having Berlin mediate their dispute. Now that's something that was different during the Merkel era. 

Ronald Meinardus is head of the Mediterranean Program at the Athens-based think tank, the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP)

This article was originally published in German.