ISTANBUL (Realist English). Greece would be unable to fight and win a war against Turkey, the rector of the Turkish National Defense University Erhan Afyoncu said on Monday, stressing that Athens faces a shortage of officers to operate its growing arsenal.
Afyoncu, a historian who has led Turkey’s top defense training institution since its creation in 2016, told CNN Turk that Turkey produces far more military officers than Greece. “I enroll four times more students than the Hellenic Naval Academy, and my quotas are full. My Military Academy quotas are more than eight times theirs, and they are full. My Air Force Academy quotas are also full,” he said.
While both countries operate 16 frigates each, Afyoncu pointed to Turkey’s population — eight times larger than Greece’s — as a decisive factor. “If you buy so many planes, so many frigates, so many weapons, you are spending your nation’s resources on arms for a war you cannot win,” he said, adding that dialogue, not conflict, should guide bilateral relations.
He also claimed Greece lacks the personnel to operate newly purchased French warships. “They cannot find soldiers. They cannot find young people willing to become soldiers,” he said.
Afyoncu’s comments came during Teknofest Blue Homeland, a military and technology fair in Istanbul where Turkish naval units, including its amphibious assault ship, staged a parade along the city’s shoreline.
Turkey and Greece, both NATO members, have longstanding disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean over territorial waters, exclusive economic zones, and the status of demilitarised Greek islands. Tensions peaked between 2020 and 2023 before easing after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis agreed to restart dialogue.
Still, mistrust remains. In April, Greek chief of the general staff Dimitrios Houpis warned that Turkey remained a threat, declaring: “We are determined, without any conditions, to respond within five minutes, wherever and whenever necessary.”
