Turkey and Greece are locked in a struggle in the Eastern Mediterranean that feels like it belongs more in 1920 than in 2020. Is war possible? In this episode, Alan Stoga looks for answers from Constantinos Filis, Executive Director at the Institute of International Relations of Panteion University in Athens.
Dr Constantinos 
Filis is Director of Research at the Institute of International Relations of Panteion University. He is head of the Russia-Eurasia & SE Europe Centre at the Institute of International Relations since 2005.
He was elected Senior Associate Member at St Antony’s College, Oxford University for two years (2007-2009). He has conducted a number of studies and advised international and Greek corporations. He is an active contributor to public debate in Greece and abroad. He is member of the Greek-Turkish Forum, as well as the Greek-Russian Society and Director of the International Olympic Truce Centre.
He recently conluded a book on EU, migration and security (Papadopoulos publ.).
Turkey and Greece are locked in a struggle in the Eastern Mediterranean that feels like it belongs more in 1920 than in 2020. Is war possible? Will Greece’s European allies come to its rescue? What happens if Turkey’s aggressive president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan miscalculates how far he can push the Greeks?
In this New Thinking for a New World podcast, Alan Stoga looks for answers from Constantinos Filis, Executive Director at the Institute of International Relations of Panteion University in Athens.
I would argue that we focus too much on leader champions alone. I argue that this is part of the problem. Many individuals are involved in producing the landscape and then progression toward a path and ultimately its implementation and then there are reactions and counter-reactions each time involving many people. I also argue that this Gauss of assessors and implementors are what determines where we end up. If this Gauss of actors is missing the abilities needed to handle differences and change, if consequently they can only unravel compromises as oppose to a whole new position owned by both, then and only then, can we end up in the false solution that is war. Avoiding war is difficult when we have the nose where we should not, but it is possible if we ensure our people have the abilities to reinvent a new world, at eye-level, peacefully, creating a level-playing field (Yes, I can hear you and no, there is no naivety here, quite the contrary). Any other outcome is but a failure to prepare our people to deal with diversity and change and the attributes needed to create “C”: not my position “A”, not their position “B”, not somewhere in between, but “C” a path we both owe. And no, it is never too late, but one has to start.
War is only “good” to increase the short-term wealth and power of vested interests. The greatest challenge is to develop an educated society with well developed or at least somewhat developed critical-thinking skills.
Professor José de la Rosa Vidal,
the solution is in the mentality, to get out of the possible human forms, whether for whatever reasons we ask for forgiveness, and we forgive ourselves where the path is an act of peace. In these times when cleanliness has become indispensable in our lives. We need a cleansing of the soul, if you do not participate in politics, you will be dominated by a mediocre and the old philosophers said, something like that, where faith and philosophy are in conflict, the only reason is peace and our peoples; Since I was appointed as an ambassador for peace, it has always brought us the greatest satisfaction and responsibility from my field of action, I am a pacifist. from Peru.
I will borrow the great words of Shakespeare’s Macbeth: “blood will have blood”. And fortunately peace will have peace …
Our Declaration – September 2nd, 2020
We, as WINPEACE (Women’s Initiative for Peace) members from Turkey, Greece, and Greek and Turkish Cypriot communities, are deeply concerned about the recent developments in the Eastern Mediterranean. Reckless statements and counter-statements and actions by all the stakeholder can thoughtlessly lead our countries to the brink of war.
We have been working for mutual understanding and rapprochement amongst the women and young people of our countries for the last twenty three years. We believe there is no mother on any shore of our shared region who is willing to exchange the life of her child for any part of hydrocarbon gas in the Mediterranean Sea.
We therefore call upon the governments of our countries to put an end to their adversarial daily discourses and to immediately start a dialogue between our countries with the aim of sharing whatever wealth is hidden under the Mediterranean and thus refrain from turning its blue waters into blood red. Our countries should work together in a collaborative and trusting spirit to reach creative solutions in a win-win fashion to benefit our societies.
We would also like to stress that at a time of worldwide economic crisis, the resources to be spent in war efforts should be challenged to meet the basic needs and concerns of our peoples. The COVID-19 pandemic has deepened already existing gender and social inequalities. We believe strongly governments should spend all their efforts to fight the pandemic and these inequalities in a peaceful and cooperative fashion.
At the same time we find it ironical that this entire debacle is caused by the fight for fossil fuels, which scientists have proven to be the main cause of climate change that threatens the entire planet, and urge our governments to direct their energies toward reducing the consumption of such fuels and increasing the efforts to increase renewable energy sources.
WINPEACE GREECE – TURKEY – CYPRUS, NORTH and SOUTH
Stop war and start economic cooperation..