Relax

Was the day in Utrecht looking after my grandson from when the schoolday ended; he's tired and loved playing with his own toys at home, rather than getting out to a playground ~ this city has some lovely children playgrounds! but we didn't get there this day. It was lovely to see him again and to see how he's growing now that he goes school in kindergarden. 
And at the schoolgates we're quite a number of grandparents waiting for their toddler grandchildren to bring home and look after till their parents get home; we're also several who come from an hour's  drive away or more. 

Thank you all lots for your reactions of recent, much appreciated!
and please take care of yourselves in this unsettling era, with the deepening economic crisis due to Putin's war in Ukraine and him taking the risk of a nucleair fall out. And than there's Erdogan threatening Greece again... I'll add a translation from the newspaper article on that worrying item:

" Turkish President Erdogan uses threatening language to Greeks: 'We can strike just like that one night'
With a veiled threat of armed action, the war of words between Greece and Turkey has entered a new phase. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that Greece is occupying Turkish islands and that Ankara "will do whatever it takes when the time comes."

"The price will be high," Erdogan said. "We only say one thing to Greece: don't forget Izmir." That is a reference to a historic battle, exactly one hundred years ago last week, in which the Greeks lost out against the Turkish army. "We could strike one night," he added. The latter has been used by the president several times in recent years to allude to actions by the Turkish military against Kurdish militants in Syria and Iraq. Those operations did indeed take place after some time.

Tensions between the two NATO member states have risen several times over the past fifty years. In 1996, two insignificant, uninhabited Greek islands in the Aegean Sea almost came to a military conflict. In the summer of 2020, the war drum was again stirred, this time because of the rights to gas in the bottom of the Mediterranean.

Last year the atmosphere seemed to clear up and the neighboring countries started talking again. In March, Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis even had lunch together, but two months later Erdogan said again that Mitsotakis "doesn't exist for me". This after the Greek Prime Minister had argued in Washington against Turkish participation in NATO's renewal of the F-16 fighter plane.

In late August, the Turks reacted furiously when Greece, as Ankara claimed, obstructed the Turkish air force during a NATO exercise. That would have happened with the Russian anti-aircraft system S-300. The US and Europe are angry that Ankara has bought the Russian S-400, but will keep quiet, Ankara noted with irritation, if the Greeks use the S-300 against a NATO partner.

Old sores:
There is a considerable amount of old sore between Turkey and Greece. There have long been territorial disputes over the many islands in the Aegean Sea. In recent years, this issue has been raised again by the associated rights to the gas in the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. This also plays a role in the conflict over Cyprus that has existed since 1974.

Erdogan has now added fuel to the fire by claiming for the first time that Greece is 'occupied' a number of islands. Athens would have obtained this through negotiations at the time, on the condition that they would remain demilitarized. According to the Turkish government, Athens has violated that condition.

The old sore also played out in a remarkable Twitter feud last week. NATO headquarters in Izmir had taken to Twitter to congratulate Turkey on Victory Day, the annual commemoration of the battle the Turkish army once won at Dumlupinar. Shortly afterwards, the Turkish Republic was founded. This year the commemoration had a special touch: it was one hundred years ago.

The congratulation was not well received in Athens. After all, it was the Greek forces that were defeated in 1922! The Greek press was up in arms, and soon the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs complained to NATO in Brussels. The tweet then disappeared.

“It shows,” wrote columnist Hilal Kaplan in the pro-government newspaper Daily Sabah, “that Greece's childish attitude has led NATO to give in to Athens' delusions.”