- The statement by Erdogan in Keshan as part of his election tour in Thrace was wrongly interpreted by both Athens and Sofia, unnecessarily provoking political and public reactions in the two neighbouring Balkan countries. On the other hand, this speech perfectly fits within the officially unrecognized neo-Osmanism policy and the political rhetoric that has been frequently used recently. This policy does not really aim to conquer territories but to build new cultural, historical, geo-strategic and geo-economic relations on the basis of the old civilization bridges, when the empire was standing on three continents, namely Europe, Asia and Africa. These ambitions are identified as "adjacent areas" (the Balkans, the Middle East, Central Asia) by Minister of Foreign Affairs Prof. Dr. Ahmet Davutoglu, who is the architect of this policy. They fall within the concept of "Turkey’s strategic depth" which he supports and which aims to redefine the place of Turkey in the region and the world, according to the interests of Ankara. In this case, the words of the Turkish Prime Minister were addressed to the Muslim minority from the Thracian areas mentioned in his speech, which Turkey feels morally, emotionally and historically committed to and concerned about. At the same time, these areas, through the people who live there, are Ankara's "living bridges" along its road to Brussels. Many of them have dual citizenship. Let me recall that four million Turks are living in Germany at present. The Germans are not concerned about this, they are rather worried that if Turkey enters the European Union, it will be the second largest country after Germany, in demographic terms, which will allow it to influence the mechanism for decision making and blocking. On the other hand, we can look at this from another angle. The 75 million Turkish population, including 30 million young, dynamic and well-educated people under the age of 30, can be "fresh blood" for aging Europe. Meanwhile, Erdogan stressed something quite important which had remained in the background in the stir caused by the unnecessary debate on "the Turks are coming". He pointed out Turkey's affiliation to old Europe in historical terms and its desire to become part of the European Union. Think how unthinkable it is for one of the oldest NATO members to want to conquer the lands of its allies, which, at the same time, are part of the European Union, which Turkey has been trying to access for more than half a century. For 60 years during the Cold War, Turkey whixh has the second largest army in NATO was guarding the borders of Europe, NATO's southern flank, from the so-called red menace of the USSR. Let us not forget that before and after Erdogan, Turkey has always supported the Euro-Atlantic values. Its integration into the European family and its western orientation in general have been a long-term strategic goal of the Turkish state, set by Ataturk. The region of Thrace in Turkey falls within Europe, in a purely geographical sense. His election speech mainly aimed to mobilize the voters in Eastern Thrace to vote for the AKP and therefore contained a series of promises, as the people there traditionally vote for the opposition Republican People's Party created by Ataturk. The nationalist parties in Greece and Bulgaria have taken advantage of the speech by the Turkish Prime Minister to feed the fears of their electorate. Every sober-minded person is aware of the elementary truth that such marginal parties give a meaning to their existence through the hatred of the Turks, Turkey and the Islamic faith. As trite as it sounds, this is still working, unfortunately. Preserving the cultural heritage, language, culture, customs and monuments dating back to the Ottoman past is also Brussels’ concern because of the core values ​​and philosophy declared by the Union. This is Ankara’s state policy too, regardless of the government in power, because this falls within the national interests. Moreover, it is quite natural for the pro-Islamists, who are currently in power and who consider themselves as an analogue of the European Christian Democrats to some extent, to show greater sensitivity to the Muslim communities in neighbouring countries such as Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Kosovo because of their ideological argument that they are particularly concerned virtually about all Muslims in the world, from Somalia to Myanmar. However, the Party of Justice and Development is committed to the Palestinian cause, which Erdogan had firmly defined as Turkey’s national political issue during the second term of the government, thus spoiling the relations with Israel. I suppose that the party primarily aims at enhancing the European cross-border cooperation through joint projects in which it is involved. I do not think that Erdogan is making an attempt on Thrace, as Greece and Bulgaria had sketchily presented things. Imagine that the Greek or Bulgarian Prime Minister, during his visit to the border regions, respectively states that Edirne, Luleburgaz, Karklaeli, Istanbul ... are "our living history in Turkey." Would Ankara react as violently as Athens and Sofia did? I doubt it. No one is irritated by the fact that modern Greeks perceive themselves as successors to the Byzantine Empire. However, it causes a commotion when the Turks perceive themselves as descendants of the Ottoman Empire. The Greek media had exaggerated things and "added oil to the fire" with comments like "Erdogan announced the new Ottoman Empire." They wondered in Bulgaria whether he is going to revive the Turkish Republic of Thrace.