Turkish press fixates on SPIKE NLOS and exercise “Alexandros”

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Greek military posture in the Aegean is back on the front pages in Turkey. Coverage this week centres on two linked themes: the reported deployment of Israeli SPIKE NLOS missile systems on Greek islands, and the Hellenic Armed Forces exercise “Alexandros,” which Ankara-facing outlets present as a new provocation and tie to talk of a Greek pre-emptive strike.

Hürriyet focuses on the missiles. Türkiye frames the drill as a challenge and links it to a scenario published in the Greek daily Ta Nea. Milliyet’s editor, Özay Şendir, tries to widen the argument into strategy, asking what would follow the first day of any clash. Takvim, separately, folds Greece into the Turkey–Libya–Israel contest in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Türkiye: landings on islets called a “new challenge”

Türkiye connects “Alexandros” to Ta Nea’s hypothetical “pre-emptive strike” scenario. According to the Turkish account, the Greek army ran an exercise under that name in which it tested landings on small islets and uninhabited rocky outcrops, including a night seizure. Special forces were moved toward several areas. Units on the Evros and on the islands were placed on full readiness. About 70 combat aircraft were mobilised. The report claims units could take on a mission within five minutes.

Hürriyet: Israeli missiles said to be on the islands

Hürriyet, citing the Greek site Onalert, reports that Greece has already fielded SPIKE NLOS systems on some islands, with further deliveries to be rolled out gradually in the eastern Aegean and on the Evros. Deliveries are described as ongoing, with a large share of the order expected by the end of the year. The same Turkish press cycle treats “Alexandros,” and its landing scenarios on islets and rocks, as a parallel Greek–Turkish story. Takvim ran a separate Libya and Eastern Mediterranean piece that also brings Greece in.

Milliyet: “Greece’s plan for a pre-emptive attack”

The sharper political reading comes from Milliyet editor Özay Şendir, returning to the Ta Nea report on a hypothetical Greek first strike. He asks whether Athens really has such a plan, and answers: “First of all, does Athens have such a plan? Yes, it does.”

Şendir reads not only the scenario but the leak itself. He notes that the Greek piece is signed by journalist Marinos Gkasiamis and claims the writer is linked to Hellenic National Defence General Staff chief Konstantinos Houpis and other “hardline” officers. What stands out, he argues, is that a carefully designed military scheme appeared in public at all. War plans, he writes, do not leak easily unless networks exist “whose strings are pulled from the United States” — a reference to the Gülen movement, FETÖ, in Turkish official language.

He also argues the leak did not happen despite Defence Minister Nikos Dendias, but could serve Dendias’s political ambitions. He points to Greek journalist Alexandra Fotaki, whom he presents as especially close to the minister, citing her role on international panels and exclusive interviews with him.

On the logic he attributes to Greek defence planning, Şendir writes: strike Turkey quickly, call in Western allies, and sit down to negotiate with an advantage over Ankara. The question that organises his column follows from there. A plan that looks sound on paper in Athens still leaves Ankara asking who stops Turkey at the 25th hour, after a first day in which Greece is supposed to hold the military edge.

Brussels, Washington, Moscow, London

Şendir then tests whether outside powers could impose a ceasefire. Brussels, he says, already has no leverage over Ankara. The United States, in his view, could not take diplomatic steps without asking who started the attack, though he expects Washington would still press for a ceasefire. He asks why Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, would rush to halt a fight between two NATO allies, and how far Britain would risk its ties with Turkey merely so Greece could reach the table ahead. He adds a further hypothetical: what if the Security Council meets late, or issues a ceasefire call that takes effect only after 48 hours?

On Houpis, and on Israel

Şendir then turns to General Houpis, arguing that since taking office he has used aggressive language toward Turkey, and that “this problematic language and this wishful thinking do not benefit Greece.” Turkish chiefs of staff, he says, avoid threatening statements about Greece. He names Turkish General Staff chief Selçuk Bayraktaroğlu and writes that those who serve their states do not personalise issues, and remember that what they say binds their country. Turkish chiefs, he adds, do not opine on matters of political will, such as which subjects the two countries will negotiate. Messages, in his telling, go out through action, not speeches. As an example he cites the “Sea Wolf” exercise, in which, he writes, different kamikaze unmanned underwater vehicles were used for the first time.

The column closes on the Greece–Israel military relationship. Şendir says the ties Houpis has built with Israel, the briefings he has received, and bases opened to Israel are not unknown. He then refers to former chief Konstantinos Floros and makes claims about Greek intelligence monitoring Floros’s communications; the SigmaLive report notes that those claims are presented as fact without evidence in the excerpt. Şendir ends with an indirect nod to past Greek–Turkish wars, saying there are “even more cautionary examples” of what happened to Greece when it “went to war with Turkey or sought war,” but that he will not expand on them so as not to affect efforts at friendship.

Takvim: Eastern Mediterranean balances

Takvim writes that British, Greek and Israeli reporting is again examining the 2019 Turkey–Libya memorandum and the effect of Turkey’s military and diplomatic presence in Libya on the Eastern Mediterranean. The paper argues that presence narrows Israel’s room for manoeuvre and affects plans for energy links from Israel to Europe via Cyprus and Greece.

READ MORE: New Greek fortifications on the Evros and in the eastern Aegean.

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