Turkish General Staff's Aegean policies; same as the Ottoman methods of conquest

[Nikephoros]

Originally Posted by Halil Inalcik

EMPIRE AND POPULATION
FORMATION OF THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE
The Ottoman state came into existence around 1300 as a small frontier principality which devoted itself to the gaza, Holy War, on the frontiers of the Seljukid Sultanate in Asia Minor and of the Byzantine Empire. Its initial gazi frontier character influenced the state's historical existence for six centuries ...

Organization of the conquests, the frontier versus the center
During this period of expansion, the administrative set-up largely conformed to the military organization, clearly aiming for a centralized system. ...
The frontier forces, led by uc-begis (uc = frontier) were the most active part of the Ottoman army. These uc-begis played a major part in the internal and external affairs of the empire during the period 1360-1453. These forces were organized under hereditary family leaders, with one uc-begi on the right wing in the direction of the Lower Danube and Wallachia, one on the left wing in the direction of Macedonia, and one in the center in the direction of Sofia and Belgrade. As the conquests proceeded, the frontier lines in these uc-begis' districts advanced further, from the Balkan range to the Danube, from Thrace to Macedonia and then to Albania and Bosnia, and from Philippopolis to Sofia and Ni§. ...

Yet it was the frontier begs who played a crucial role in pushing the Ottoman borders forward during this same period. Under the pressure, many of the Balkan princes and lords readily accepted Ottoman ovcrlordship to spare themselves from the continual raiding of the frontiersmen. Once the lands had become tribute-paying territories, their non-Muslim inhabitants assumed the status of ahl al-zimma, i.e., protected subjects of the Muslim state in accordance with Islamic Law.

The transformation from tributary status to total annexation and assimilation into the Ottoman system, that is, being registered as a sancak, varied in time with the particular circumstances of each territory. In general, however, the period of transition consisted of first tightening the bonds of vassalage by eliminating local dynasties and refractory elements, and then replacing all remnants of the pre-Ottoman administrative apparatus with the timar system, the basic building block of Ottoman provincial administration.

Inalcik, Halil. An Economic and Social History of the Ottoman Empire. (Cambridge University Press, 1997) pp. 11, 13-14.

This famous Turkish historian of the Ottoman Empire shows that the Ottoman Empire expanded by making constant raids into the territories of neighboring Christian lands. The modern Turkish state continues in much the same tradition adapting the Ottoman methods of conquest and constant border raids into our present epoch of international law, fighter jets and modern concepts of FIR, national waters, etc.

Nothing changes especially because the Greek state and populace just accepts the Turkish mentality so easily and internalizes it. With the inept foreign policy formulations of the modern Greek state, we support their EU bid or pretend to(you can never tell) and much of the Greek populace openly accepts such defeatist formulations. Let us keep to support their EU bid while the modern uc-begis in their F-16s challenge the existential existence of nearly one million Greeks living in various island formations of the Aegean. Who will stop the uc-begis, dozens of Brussels bureaucrats or leftish Greek professional politican sissies controlling the foreign policy of the Greek state?