Two urgent signals dominate today’s geopolitical landscape: NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte warning that “Russia has us as its next target”, and the Kremlin’s explicit confirmation of a new Putin–Erdogan strategic meeting. These developments reveal that Europe has entered a phase of pre-war escalation.
Moscow and Ankara are aligning their military and geopolitical agendas, forming a Russo-Turkish axis that threatens to expand into the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece stands at the heart of this development, as Erdogan intensifies threats of a sudden strike and seeks a pretext through the Dodecanese. Europe is waking up late, but the danger is immediate: NATO’s cohesion is fragile, and the Alliance’s southern flank is emerging as a potential first battlefield.

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DIALOGUE

Homo:
Diotima, today’s news brings two alarming developments.
First, NATO’s chief Mark Rutte warns that “we are Russia’s next target” and that a war of WWII scale is no longer unthinkable.
Second, the Kremlin officially confirms tomorrow’s meeting between Putin and Erdogan, signalling a consolidated strategic alliance.
How do you interpret these?

Diotima:
I interpret them as a clear emergency alert.
Rutte tears down the illusion of a safe Europe.
Russia does not simply plan; it schedules.
And that schedule has been visible since 2014 with Crimea — exactly as Homo-Naturalis.gr highlighted back then.

Homo:
The tragedy is that nobody listened.
Now even the NATO Secretary-General admits that “many do not feel the urgency” and wrongly believe that time is on our side.

Diotima:
Because time is not.
Russia has effectively turned Turkey into its geopolitical satellite.
The Putin–Erdogan meeting in Turkmenistan is not ceremony; it is strategic synchronization.
Their shared objective is clear: expand the Russo-Turkish axis into the Balkans and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Homo:
Which is exactly why the threat of a Greek–Turkish war grows.
We’ve warned about this for years.
Erdogan speaks openly of attacking “one night, suddenly”, using the alleged “militarization” of the Dodecanese as pretext.

Diotima:
And Putin gladly provides that pretext.
A second conflict inside NATO would fracture the Alliance’s unity.
Greece is targeted not because it is weak but because it is critical.
If Greece is destabilized, NATO’s southeastern flank collapses — hence Rutte’s remark that “the U.S. cannot remain safe without a safe Europe”.

Homo:
So you’re saying we have officially entered a phase of pre-war escalation?

Diotima:
Yes.
Europe is waking up late and painfully.
Russia moves fast and cold.
Turkey acts as an accelerant.
And once again, the Balkans become the ignition point — as in previous European crises over the last two centuries.

Homo:
What should we expect immediately?

Diotima:
Three developments:

1. Heightened Turkish military provocations in the Aegean.
2. Strengthened Russian influence operations in the Balkans (Serbia, Bosnia, Bulgaria).
3. Pressure within NATO for rapid armament and collective defence, because the Alliance knows time is running out.

Homo:
So the Eastern Question was never resolved — it simply keeps transforming.

Diotima:
Exactly.
Its current form is the Russo-Turkish revisionist project aiming southward into Europe.
Greece is at the centre of this corridor — and must respond not with fear but with foresight.

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