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By Vangelis Aretaios and Maria Zacharaki

While Ankara's narrative towards Greece increasingly resembles a roar, with a clear revisionist background concerning the Treaty of Lausanne and the Aegean islands, there are voices in Turkey that express a completely different view from that of Tayyip Erdogan and Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Two former Turkish ambassadors, Yalim Eralp (1) and Selim Kuneralp (2), both "gurus" of Turkish diplomacy and people close to the broader Kemalist ideology, have the courage to publicly express their doubts about whether Ankara's positions on the Greek islands and their sovereignty can be based on existing conditions.

“There are many claims about the conditional sovereignty of these islands (ed. of the Greek islands). There is no such thing. The islands outside the three miles belong to Greece. And Turkey has accepted this for years. Putting this in jeopardy now makes Turkey an aggressor state in diplomacy,” Yalim Eralp wrote on the respected opposition website Serbestiyet. He continued by noting: “We say, ‘they didn’t count this island in Lausanne, they didn’t count the other island.’ If I remember correctly, there are 2400 islands and islets in the Mediterranean. It is impossible for the treaty to count all of these islands.” And the experienced Turkish ambassador concludes: “Language is very important in diplomacy. Just as it spoils your image, it can also mislead you legally. Nationalism is beautiful, but it must be rational and based on documents (…) Lausanne gave the islands outside three miles to Greece, whether we like it or not.”

On the same website, a few days ago, the – also highly experienced diplomat – Selim Kuneralp wrote: "Recently, it was claimed that the islands were left to Greece under the condition of disarmament in the Treaty of Lausanne and that if this condition is not met, Turkey can claim rights over them, but it is not explained on which article of the Treaty this view is based," (here).

Kuneralp goes on to say that the Treaty of Paris, which transferred the Dodecanese from Italy to Greece in 1947, contains clearer provisions than Lausanne on the demilitarization of these islands. However, to defend its military presence on the islands, Greece says that Turkey is not a party to this treaty, so it is illegal to claim rights under it, and that it has the right to protect its territories under Article 51 of the UN. “Unfortunately, the demands for the islands by both politicians and the media in our country can be used by Greece in seeking foreign support,” he concludes.

Whether these views represent a significant portion of Turkish diplomats or just a small minority could not be clearly determined by the KReport report. But certainly, when two figures like these ambassadors publicly express views that contradict the ongoing narrative in Turkey, they should be taken seriously.

Because, when the “roar” of nationalism and revisionism, and especially the revisionism of the Treaty of Lausanne, which is a cornerstone of Kemalist ideology and political tradition, subsides, perhaps views like these will begin to set the pace for Turkey’s foreign policy. Let’s now listen to the other voices from Turkey, even if they are whispers for now…

(1) Born in 1939 in Istanbul, from an old bourgeois family, Yalim Eralp served as a diplomat in Greece, the USA, as ambassador, in the United Nations, NATO, in India, as ambassador, in high positions in the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Ankara. He has served as an advisor to Mesut Yilmaz and Tansu Çıler. A man of deep thought, insight and education.

(2) Born in 1951 in Prague, from an old Ottoman family, Selim Kuneralp was for years head of the European Affairs Directorate of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has served as ambassador to Sweden and Korea and as Turkey's permanent representative to the EU and the World Trade Organization. Liberal and Europeanist.