A major Washington defense think tank is calling on the United States to back Greece, Israel and Cyprus with real milita...

A major Washington defense think tank is calling on the United States to back Greece, Israel and Cyprus with real military weight, warning that Turkey is systematically reshaping the Eastern Mediterranean while American attention stays fixed on the Iran war. The Foundation for Defense of Democracies published the analysis this week, arguing that the Greece-Israel-Cyprus security framework is the region's most reliable counterbalance to Turkish expansionism and that Washington needs to put teeth behind it. The piece lays out a pattern of Turkish moves that the authors say add up to a deliberate strategy, not routine friction. In March 2026, Turkey deployed F-16s to the occupied north of Cyprus, the first time combat aircraft have been based there. In June, Turkish jets harassed a plane carrying the Greek, French and Dutch defense ministers flying to an EU meeting in the Republic of Cyprus. In August, Turkish aircraft and drones committed 25 airspace violations in a single day over Greek territory, including a simulated dogfight. Ankara also relocated its 2,000-strong 51st Commando Brigade to Soke, directly opposite Samos. The FDD analysis frames all of this against Greece and Israel's recently signed Achilles Shield deal, a 3 billion euro agreement covering anti-missile, anti-aircraft and anti-drone systems. The authors call it a necessary deterrent, and push back on Erdogan's demand that Athens abandon what he called the "wrong path" of arming its islands. Turkey's Mecca Pact with Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, signed in August, gets a cold assessment. The FDD argues the pact lacks a joint command, a trigger mechanism and any real shared strategy, pointing out that when Houthi forces struck a Saudi Aramco refinery within 48 hours of signing, Riyadh did not call on its new partners. The broader argument is that Greece, Cyprus and Israel are trying to preserve existing treaty-based boundaries while Turkey is actively trying to revise them. The FDD urges Washington to treat that distinction as the basis for a clearer policy. #Greece #Cyprus #EasternMediterranean