A huge 'mistake' that many analysts make when commenting on TR's recent 'series of confrontations' is to treat each case as a discreet episode. Here is a clear example where E. Med. escalation is reduced primarily to a TR vs. GR & CYP. conflict around demarcation & energy issues. https://twitter.com/nigargoksel/status/1299315066437861376

So should we believe that TRs invasion of N. Syria & Iraq, flying warplanes along the Armenian border, mil. activities in Libya/Somali even in the Gulf & delivering jihadists to conflict areas are unrelated incidents that ought not concern our analysis of the E. Med. crisis?

Should we assume that Mr Erdoğan denouncing the Lausanne treaty, his routinized irradentist/supremacist threats or diplomatic bravado & acute cartographic aggression among the pol. elite are all rhetorical moves or symptoms of a desire to solve issues via negotiation?!

Hence this has no analytical value. It is at best wishful thinking if not an effort 2 whitewash a borderline rogue state

“I think Ankara’s strategic thinkers sincerely want negotiations, but they don’t think they could get them unless they create havoc.” https://time.com/5884397/turkey-greece-tensions/?amp=true&__twitter_impression=true

In contrast with the author's ungrounded assumptions the rhetoric of the elite is shockingly consistent with TR's policies/acts. That is, If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck. So let's name it!

In TR after the putsch in 2016 we witness the making of a progressively more aggressive regime domestically/ int'lly. As of the invasion of parts of N. Syria in Oct 2019 it turned into a war-regime likes of which we have seen many times in history."Carrots" rarely if ever worked!

Here is my take on how and why Turkey has become a war-regime and what sort of analytical implications that might have:

https://ahvalnews.com/turkey-politics/has-turkey-under-erdogan-become-war-regime

https://ahvalnews.com/recep-tayyip-erdogan/four-blocs-propping-erdogans-akp-post-coup

https://ahvalnews.com/turkish-politics/monopolisation-power-and-never-ending-political-crisis

Finally the above example is not the only one; many pundits come up with similar framings/suggestions. Analysis is never innocent: The sort of policy suggestion we make should serve to sustainable peace rather than counter-productively appeasing and promoting further aggression.

Ironically some retired Turkish admirals does a much sophisticated/insightful job in framing the conflict than many conflict resolution / area experts (which requires explanation on its own right):

Let me conclude, TR's position/rhetoric/elite structure is not a replica of 1974 Cyprus nor of the 1938 Sanjak d'Alexandretta case. What we see today is not a simple continuation of republican diplomacy/expansionism/irredentism but rather it marks a break from it.

And the cause of the shift / source of the problem (along with the global zeitgeist) is the current TR pol. leadership. That is exactly where we need to seek a solution for endurable peace / equitable settlement not only in the E. Med but in the broader region.