The Implosion of Greece and the Aftershock in Europe

A guest on Secure Freedom Radio with Frank Gaffney today was John Sitilides, the principal at Trilogy Advisors, LLC and the former board chairman for the Woodrow Wilson Center’s Southeast Europe Program.

The topic of their discussion was the continuing influx of refugees to the shores of Greece, a country already struggling with an ongoing financial crisis. Sitilides recently spoke at an economic forum in Greece and gave Gaffney a first-hand account of what’s happening there:

“What I saw is a country that is being pummeled by its geography. Greece is essentially trapped in a geopolitical vice between the flow of migrants and refugees coming up from the Middle East and Northern Africa, bumping up against the increasingly closed borders of Central and Eastern Europe.”

Sitilides suggests that if no solution is offered, Greece could end up becoming nothing more than a “warehouse” for hundreds of thousands of refugees.

Gaffney says he’s heard up to 3 million more refugees could arrive in Greece in the coming months and that warm weather is contributing to the expanding numbers.

The EU and particularly Angela Merkel of Germany, are apparently appealing to Turkey to help them stem the flow of refugees but that isn’t realistic because migrants could simply find another route.

Sitilides remarked:

“The idea that somehow the European Union is going to shower Turkey with three to four billion Euros in assistance to provide for the refugees already in the country and then wildly unrealistic sweeteners such as ramping up Turkey’s EU accession process while Turkey’s becoming more authoritarian, more repressive and more sort of a militaristic approach to the Kurdish human rights issue in the country, I thinks really begs the question as to whether or not Merkel is even consulting with her other European Union partners.”

On top of all of this, Gaffney reminds us that before Turkey is even admitted to the European Union, Turks may be given visa-free access to Europe. Sitilides suggests that this development could and likely will be exploited by the Islamic State.

Gaffney describes this as the “end of Europe as we know it.”

It’s astounding that European leaders don’t seem to understand that.