Published: August 29, 2005
Op-Ed Contributor
Crossfire War: Europe; Turkey - Greece - Half Moon Joint Exercise - Regional Imp
By Willard Payne 
Night Watch: PRISTINA - Ostensibly under the command of NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR), Turkish and Greek battalions conducted a joint exercise called Half Moon.
The 62 Turkish and Greek soldiers were under the command of Turkish Captain Ahmet Dener and Greek Major Konstantinos Alexopulos. The three day maneuvers were conducted on the check points formed on the border with Albania and in the Dragas region of Kosovo. The purpose of the exercise is to guarantee the security of Kosovo. The operations included: preventing illegal crossings, weapons, drugs and human trafficking.
The Greek soldiers stayed in the Turkish Barracks of Sultan Murat I in Prizren.
Sultan Murat I reign, from 1362?-1389 was a period of rapid conquest of the Balkans by the Ottoman Empire. What is not widely known is that during the first Balkan wars from 1991-95 there were Greeks who fought along side Serbs. The precise number is not known but Athens probably supported them since Greece and Serbia follow the same Orthodox ritual.
At the time I never would have imagined the day would come when Greek and Turkish units of any size conduct joint maneuvers but that was before the 78-day bombing of Serbia by NATO in 1999. A couple of years later the news announced that Greece and Turkey conducted a joint peace mission to the Middle East. Athens has been giving more of an audience to Turkey and the Middle East ever since as this site has chronicled.
For Tehran and its Expediency Council this is another situation they will take advantage of in Tehran’s attempt to remove the West as a major force in world affairs. Athens is accepted by Ankara, Tehran, Riyadh and other Islamic capitals who would not mind if Greek units beat the Jihad to Vienna.
Brussels is still under the illusion that Greece remains under the command of NATO but that is true in name only. NATO defeated itself when it agreed to the most regressive decision in modern history- the division of Yugoslavia in the name of the New World Order. It has unleashed Old World Chaos.
Night Watch Information Service
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