How Donald Trump’s reelection made the scale tip
The moment the news of Donald Trump’s reelection reached the Mediterranean, both leaders Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan congratulated the new president. But, at the same time, fear sank in and worry seemed imminent in the Greek landscape.
During Biden’s presidency, the situation was not ideal for either side, but one thing was sure: Biden saw the world divided in two camps — democracies and autocracies — making it clear where Turkey stands. Now, with Donald Trump’s 2024 reelection, things have shifted, since Trump only sees pragmatic and transactional relations, putting Greece and Turkey at the same starting point.
More than that, Trump and Erdogan are not only on friendly terms, but seem to have an actual close amicable relation, a fact that makes Greece tremble even more. But while all the above only existed as a theory, Greece now sees its nightmare take flesh and bone.
How Turkey is emerging as a regional power
Turkey seems to slowly become an important regional power, starting from its airforce. They seem to be making strategic moves and investments that will bring them the air force upgrade they longed for some time, but weren’t allowed to make during Biden’s presidency.
The first concern took place when Saudi Arabia’s intentions of purchasing around 100 fifth generation KAAN aircraft came to light. The TAI KAAN aircraft is a stealth, twin-engine, all-weather air superiority fighter. Aircrafts that put Greece’s airforce at a large disadvantage.
Up until now, Greece and Turkey were never really on friendly terms, with one country pushing the other often. One thing they had in common though, is that due to the US controlling and supplying them with weapons, both on the ground and in the air, their technologies were of similar generation. Now, the scale has tipped.
The Turkish aircraft is currently in an advanced stage of development, and it appears that it could be ready to begin production before the end of the decade.
The air force upgrade round two
But the worry does not end here. As said before, Saudi Arabia has long-standing relations with the US, which supplies them with F-15 aircrafts. What they have long craved though, was to be allowed to purchase the F-35 aircrafts, but they were never given the go ahead.
While the Turkish KAAN is now posing as an alternative solution, they also found a “back door”. Their problem until now was that the production process was not in the country and the development of the KAAN aircraft was solely dependent on the US, which was supplying them with General Electric’s F110 engines.
A solution to this problem is now discovered: Baykar, the company that manufactures the now famous drones, acquired the Italian Piaggio Aero.
The historic Italian company offers the Turks a significant advantage: its extensive knowledge in engine manufacturing, while at the same time putting Turkey in the F-35 program through the “back door”. Now, a European country is helping in the development and production of the engines of the 5th generation American stealth fighter.
These moves have made it clear to Greece that Turkey has set their sights on their airforce, as well as their independent domestic production. A fact that not only upgrades their army power, not only helps the Turkish revenue, but also signifies that they are an emerging regional power.
The comparison with Greece at the moment regarding similar strategic moves and investments is depressing. For now, while Greece is in the process of an extremely expensive modernization program for their armed forces, they can only hope that they will be able to balance, at least to a certain extent, the Turkish dynamic and that they will not, once again, regret missing opportunities.
