Quote Originally Posted by chakos View Post
Rastagir,

If the shit hit the fan Europe would have to help and even over a few rocks. It would be humiliating to Europe as a whole if part of an EU country was invaded and it did nothing to help.

If Turkey takes a few islands and Europe does nothing then whats to stop Russia taking bits and peices of the former Soviet states. Before we say the US lets not forget that they are streched thin as it is and i believe its only a matter of time till the European theater drops even further in importance. We all saw how the US reacted to the Georgian war.

If Europe wants to be taken seriously then the EU has to be seen to take care of its own defence. Allowing a non European country to take part of an EU member whilst doing nothing sets the wrong precedent.
I had opened a thread once about this, what would happen and how everyone else would respond in the event of a war between Greece and Turkey. We discussed some points there but, for the sake of your argument, I will offer a few remarks.

I do not see EU responding. Plain as that. Greece is already an economical "black sheep" among Europeans and, frankly, I don't see how Germany or France or Britain will offer the lives of their men to defend our land. Europe had it's share of wars in the last century, Europeans are sick of it and we can see this when the Americans try to rally their NATO allies to contribute in Afganistan. Europe, under the "protection" of NATO have become "weak" when dealing with matters of war (and this isn't an insult, it isn't meant as such).

If the rest of Europe can continue to do "business as usual" with the "new Sheriff in town" in our islands and their interests are not hurt, I don't see the reason why they should be bothered. Do not forget that EU is not a military alliance (not at this point and, since we have NATO in place I seriously doubt it will ever be in the near future), only an economical one. If NATO allows such an incident, why EU wouldn't? I do not like this one bit, but it is the reality we are facing. It will have destructive consequences in the long run (that's for sure) and this is why we should not even consider doing anything stupid; and this goes to both countries.