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By Ioannis Ath. Baltzoi* 

        The events in Evros and especially in the Karagaç triangle from February 28 until recently, when the Sultan decided for various reasons (internal, disappointment, coronavirus, etc.) to withdraw his guided "siegemen" and bazivozuks from the region, brought new data to this undeclared war of Turkey against Greece. The unexpected and unprecedented for Turkey, strong resistance of the hitherto appeasing Greece disappointed the Sultan's staff, which considered the success of the plan to dismantle the country's defensive deterrence certain and which considered Greece to be the weak link for its illegal maximalist nationalist aspirations. And the developments in general unpleasantly surprised the Sultan and his "first-timers" in this unprecedented war that he launched against Greece. 

The "1453 Plan" and the Repeated Defeats

           Recently, despite the pompous verbal statements of its president, Turkey has experienced so many repeated defeats for the first time. The defeats began in the province of Idlib in Turkey, with a real disaster for Turkey. There, for the first time, the Turkish army faced a regular army, the Syrian Arab Army, worn out and decimated by the many years of war, where, with the help of the Russian air force, it suffered repeated defeats with dozens of dead and wounded, lost approximately 1/3 of the territory of the Idlib province and found 8 Turkish observation posts trapped at the mercy of the Syrian army, a real shock for the arrogant Sultan, the Turkish army and Turkish society.

And then the Sultan decided to implement his long-planned plan called "1453", as revealed by the Cumhuriyet newspaper. Invasion of Greece, with "weaponization" of the migration flows, splitting the borders with the violent influx of migrants, complete destabilization of Greece, thus threatening and blackmailing Europe, which ultimately did not succeed. At the same time, the Sultan literally suffered continuous diplomatic defeats, since on the one hand NATO showed no willingness to get involved in the Syrian quagmire, and Europe did not accept Turkey's demands (financial aid, understanding in Syria, visas for Turkish citizens). The main diplomatic defeat that Turkey suffered and which hurts a lot, occurred in Moscow, where it was forced by the “Tsar of Russia”, President Putin and in front of the statue of Catherine the Great (remember the Küçük Kaynarci Agreement, 1774), to sign a humiliating agreement on Idlib, putting an end to its grandiose revisionist aspirations in the region. Thus, the “1453” plan, with this symbolic name, was its lifeline for the repeated defeats, which it had to justify, within its own country, which has now begun to doubt and question it. Of course, it had to achieve something that was ultimately not achieved.

This operation, which began on the 28th^η February 2020, is considered and is the epitome of Hybrid War, was organized and executed by two Turkish state structures, the Ministry of Interior with the Military Gendarmerie (Jandarma) and the Turkish Intelligence Service (MIT) and the "Erdogan's henchmen", Suleyman Soylu and Hakan Fidan respectively. The purpose is to pierce the Greek borders with the migrant crowd transported and guided by the Turkish regime, which the Erdogan regime has deliberately accumulated in Turkey for specific purposes and pursuits. I am referring to the deliberate invitation of migrant flows from Sunni Islam, for the intended nationalist-revisionist purposes of the National Oath (Misaak I Mili), which the new Ataturk, Erdogan, must implement. By abolishing the visa and with a cheap Turkish Airlines ticket ($35-50), every Sunni Muslim from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Afghanistan, the Maghreb countries, could realize his dream and come to Europe through his target state, Greece. We will not analyze here the tragic and disastrous mistakes that Greece made in dealing with this migratory threat, which was the beginning of the greatest danger that Greece is facing, with the risk of altering its ethnic composition, since Europe closed the borders and they stayed here. And here I should mention that all the “invited” immigrants to Turkey, from the aforementioned countries are only Sunni Muslims and no Christians.

The Vasivozouks

In the first days of the invasion and especially in the vanguard of the "attacking" masses, immigrant families were used, along with young men, who led the attacks and fired smoke grenades, tear gas, firecrackers, had cutting tools, etc. Fortunately, Greece reacted as defined by International Law, the Constitution of Greece and the National sovereign rights of a state entity. And Greece endured and Evros did not fall.

Erdogan suffered another defeat, a defeat that is the worst for the Sultan, because he did not expect it and was certain of the success of his plan. So he decided to continue the siege of Greece, for internal consumption, since his authority is now clearly being questioned. This time, he decided to use proxies, extremists that he has been using for years. In recent days, it has been observed that the attacks in Evros are being carried out by young people, there were no women or families, who had left the area, realizing the fraud, about open borders, that the Turkish fifth column had falsely created and, in fact, as was recorded, the physiognomies often changed. New figures were constantly being recorded as starring in the incidents at the Karagac triangle fence, proof of the transfer of Islamist extremists and jihadists from Syria, meaning we have the use of methodology from the Ottoman Empire with the historically known-unknown Vazivozuks.

The word basivouzoukos and more correctly bassoon  comes from the compound Turkish word  bass (head) and bozouk (damaged) i.e. bad-tempered (damaged) and is used for a particularly unruly, wild, beastly person. By extension the word Vassivukism implies an act that recalls the arbitrariness and atrocities of the basivouzoukou. The word basivouzoukos became synonymous with the robber and the criminal, who inspires terror for his atrocities. The Vasibuzuks were an Asiatic, Turanian tribe, used by Mehmed the Conqueror as a guard during the fall of Constantinople. Later in the Ottoman Empire, the word bass-bozouk they used it to denote any civilian, that is, as opposed to a soldier. During the 19^ο  century, the irregulars, who were not subject to regular military discipline, were called basivouzoukou. The basivouzoukou replaced the real estate agents, who in the early years of Turkish history oppressed the common people.  

Evros showed us the Way.

In Evros we had the mother of battles, in the Hybrid War that Erdogan launched against Greece. Evros withstood Turkey's Hybrid War, because for the first time, the authorities were listened to, namely the political and military leadership of the Ministry of Defense and the Ministry of Citizen Protection, who received approval to do their job. War has many phases, until we reach armed conflict. Thus, we must realize that Greece and Turkey are already in the "gray zone" between peace and conventional war, we are constantly tested and if we fail then the consequences will be decisive for our future. Erdogan was wrong, because he considered us a given, and Greece's reaction, so far appeasing, timid and fearful. The different reaction, the plan, the composure, the determination, the ability, the cooperation and the unity of mind were the crucial components that brought these results. The developments in Evros, in addition to demonstrating the high ability of our Armed Forces, also awakened the national sentiment of the Greeks, driving away from us this feeling of Turkophobia and perhaps "Turkishness", which possessed part of the Greek people. We should thank on the one hand the Armed Forces and the Security Forces for the sufficient ability, the professionalism, the morale and the spirit that they demonstrated and Sultan Erdogan who in an awkward way awakened the dormant moral forces and abilities of the Greeks in general. We can successfully confront Turkey, in everything that it plans against us. Evros showed us the way.

First published in https://slpress.gr/ (28 / 3 / 20)

* Ioannis Athan. Baltzoi is a Lieutenant General (ret.), President of the Hellenic Institute for Strategic Studies (ELISME), former Defense Attaché in Tel Aviv, former ECMM Operations Officer in the Bosnian War, Graduate of the Hellenic Army, Hellenic National Defense Academy, Tactical Intelligence School (US Army), holder of a Master's Degree (M.Sc.) in Geopolitical Analysis, Geostrategic Composition and Defense Studies and International Law from the National Kapodistrian University of Athens.