The Greek port of Alexandroupoli located on the Thracian Sea is poised to shake up the geopolitical map of southern Europe… This deep-water port offers an alternative to the closure of the Bosphorus straits by Turkey.
This was one of the immediate consequences of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine: in accordance with the Montreux Convention, Turkey, on February 24, 2022, closed the straits towards the Black Sea to all military maritime traffic. Alexandroupoli, located near the Dardanelles Strait, then appeared as an alternative to the Bosphorus crossing. It is another gateway to nearby Bulgaria, then Romania, and finally Ukraine which can be reached in a few days.
Securing logistical flows is the crux of the matter, and Alexandroupoli offers strategic access to the heart of the old continent, assures geopolitologist Florent Parmentier: “ Intelligence tells you what to do, strategy tells you how to do it, and logistics tells you whether you can do it or not. And so this possibility of regional rapprochement through the port of Alexandroupoli actually shows the importance of logistics. It is also understood that there are a certain number of difficulties today that we observe on the land border with Ukraine… Whether in its relations with Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, we see that these different countries in the region, rather to the north and west of Ukraine, are in a situation where they are perhaps more demanding in relation to what passes through their borders. And so the idea is not to depend only on this land route, it is quite simply to also allow, through Alexandroupoli, to have something to say in terms of the transport of weapons, troops and therefore ultimately logistics which imposes itself as an essential dimension of war. »
Asset
The Greek port, hitherto little known, overshadows Turkey. It has even become a major asset in the standoff between Athens and Ankara for years in the Eastern Mediterranean. “ Turkey is in some way jealous of its mandate as protector, guarantor of the security of the straits, but Turkey cannot directly oppose the transformation of Alexandroupoli, explains Florent Parmentier. Which means that this certainly gives in the difficult relations which existed for a long time between Greece and Turkey, perhaps an advantage for Greece. This asset could even be a prelude to a form of détente that we can begin to see in the small regional arrangements that exist today between the Greek Prime Minister and the Turkish President. »
France, at the head of the multinational NATO battalion deployed in Romania, is closely interested in the port facilities of Alexandroupoli, as is the United States, which sees it as an ideal advanced post for transporting military equipment to the rear. Ukrainians. Alexandroupoli, capital of the province of Eros, hitherto little known, is on the way to becoming a real Western and NATO hub for transporting weapons and men to the shores of the Black Sea, without no longer having to depend on the turbulent Turkish neighbor.
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