Greek PM slams ultranationalist MHP leader for posing with map showing Greek islands as Turkish

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Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on July 11 slammed President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ally and the leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Devlet Bahçeli who posed with a map that shows Greek islands in the Aegean Sea and Crete as Turkish.

“Take a good look at this map. Crete, Rhodes, Lesvos, Chios, Samos all consumed by Turkey. Α fever dream of extremists or Turkey’s official policy? Another provocation or the true goal?” Mitsotakis tweeted on July 11.

“President Erdoğan must make his position clear on his junior coalition partner's latest antics,” he added.

Bahçeli on July 9 visited the ultranationalist Grey Wolves’ (“Ülkü Ocakları”) head office. 

The Grey Wolves head Ahmet Yiğit Yıldırım gifted Bahçeli a map that shows Greek islands in the Aegean Sea and Crete Island as part of Turkey. The map was called “our national pact in the seas.”

Yıldırım later tweeted that the map shows “the borderline of our islands, where the glorious Turkish flag fluttered for hundreds of years but was usurped by Greece.”

The Grey Wolves, operating inside Turkey for decades, is regarded as the armed wing of MHP. During the 1970s and 1980s, it committed acts of violence on the streets of Turkey, when its members often clashed with political opponents.

It has been banned in several European countries due to its constant attacks.