Having just returned after a first-time holiday to Greece and Turkey, it seems that the author is ignorant of Greek-Turkish history. Both countries have indulged in mass evictions of people with different ethnic backgrounds, the most recent being in 1923 when tens of thousands of Greeks were forced to leave mainland Turkey for Greece. Both parties have legitimate claims against the other and this article does nothing to find a middle group with real, effective solutions. By way of example, what if Manhattan Island was part of Russia, peopled by Russians with a large Russian military presence? The USA would be justifiably nervous for all sorts of reasons. Yet, along the west coast of Turkey, most of the islands, some as little as one kilometer offshore, are part of Greece. I hasten to add that these islands seem not to be a source of conflict between Greece and Turkey, but it's an extremely strange and unsettling situation to have islands controlled by your historical enemy in your backyard.

Actually, it is Bernie who is ignorant of Greek-Turkish history, and the master of spin.

He says: << Both countries have indulged in mass evictions of people with different ethnic backgrounds...>>

The trouble with spin like this is it gives people an excuse to throw up their hands and say "Well ones is as bad as the other...no more to said on that issue". The reality is Turkey has been far and away the worst culprit (a master at ethnic cleasing)--and it is still doing to the Kurds.

The biggest threat to Greece in not Turkey but the corrupt and ultra-nationalistic Greek political and big business class that has destroyed the fabricated society that was created by the imperial powers of Europe in order to prevent Russian influence in the region in the 19th century. The Hellenic Republic should be expelled from NATO and the EU for violating just about every European value , norm and strategic interest of the West. The Hellenic Republic has been waging a Cold War against Macedonia, Albania, Turkey and has colluded with Slobodan Milosevic's Serbia.

Bernie Masters,

Turkey was once part of Greece, Istanbul was a once a Greek City and the Turks brutally occupied Greece for centuries, there's far more to Greek/Turkish history than a few islands, or Thrace.