Athens’ response to Ankara’s objections to the historical map offered by the Chief of General Staff, General, was intense. Dimitrios Houpis, to the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomewduring his recent visit to Constantinople.
The Ministry of National Defense through sources clarifies that the gift was purely symbolic and characterized Turkey’s reactions.
According to military sources, the map delivered by General Houpis to the Patriarch is the “Thraciae Veteris Typus” of 1585, a work by Flemish cartographer and geographer Abraham Ortelius. This map captures the wider geographical area of Thrace, including the straits of the Dardanelles, Propontis, the Bosphorus, Constantinople, the Black Sea and the islands of Imbros, Tenedos, Lemnos, Samothraki and Thassos.
“The map was chosen as a symbolic gift to Panagiotis, because it depicts its homeland, Imbros,” the same sources note, adding that the Turkish discomfort for a 16th -century map is at least questionable – especially from a country that continues to invoke it.
See the map:
“Complaining about a map of this particular historical” sources “of the Turkish Ministry of Defense, a country citing a 2025 map of the” blue homeland “, reaches the boundaries of funerals,” the Ministry of National Defense sources said.
Turkey’s reaction
It is recalled that the action of the Chief of General Staff offered the map during his visit to Fanari, on the sidelines of the 18th Synod of the Balkan Armed Forces leaders, sparked a reaction from the Turkish Ministry of Defense, according to Turkish media reports.
Anonymous sources of the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs have spoken of “tooling the past”, arguing that such moves are nothing more than “nostalgic comforts” and calling on Greek officials to “understand and accept the events”.