Long-running tensions between Turkey and Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean are ramping up pressure on NATO exactly at a time when the 30-country Euro-Atlantic military alliance must pull together to tackle the multiple destabilizing factors sparked by Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
The city of Litchfield is home to Hillsdale County’s largest industrial park thanks to the city’s Tax Increment Finance Authority — which encompasses most of the industrial park — reinvesting tax dollars back into the manufacturing community.
Litchfield City Manager Jason Smith may be relatively new to the job, but he has a grasp on the struggles manufacturers face in today’s economy.
Much of the situation employers are facing today has gone unchanged this year. Many jobs sit vacant as employers struggle to find qualified candidates to fill skilled positions.
A grisly drug-induced homicide captivated the media in Saudi Arabia this April, when a man in the country's Eastern Province set his family house on fire before iftar, the meal that ends the Ramadan fast. Four members of his family were killed.
Oleg Ustenko, a senior economic adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, welcomed the development, and said he expected the price range to be between $40 and $60.
"This is fantastic. It's exactly what we needed" to reduce the revenues that Russia was collecting, he told Reuters. Brent crude futures rose 66 cents to $93.02 a barrel on Friday.
Zelenskiy himself, in a video address, said a cap should also be imposed on Russian natural gas exports.
“Companies are struggling to find talent, whether it is because of a lack of specialized talent for their needs, pay, work environment or a combination of the three is something that each company should be investigating on their own,” Smith said. “For example, it doesn’t matter what the starting pay is for a specialized welder or highly skilled trade, if there are none looking for work, there’s not much that can be done to quickly fill those spots. It comes down to supply and demand.”
If there are a lot of people in the field, Smith said, job seekers will go where they can find the best balance of a good environment and strong pay. If a company offers lower wages compared to other regional companies competing for the same talent, they’ll struggle.
Thousands of Russians from across the country were in central Moscow on Saturday to pay their final respects to Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last Soviet leader, who was viewed by some as a great reformist but was reviled by others who blamed him for the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Inside the grand hall of Moscow’s famed House of the Unions — with its windows draped in black and its chandeliers dimmed as solemn classical music played — people walked by Mr. Gorbachev’s coffin, flanked by two guards of honor. Some mourners left flowers on a table in front of the coffin.
Mr. Gorbachev died on Tuesday at age 91, after what Moscow’s Central Clinical Hospital said was “a long and grave illness.”
Today we confirm our joint political intention to finalise and implement a comprehensive prohibition of services which enable maritime transportation of Russian-origin crude oil and petroleum products globally," the ministers said.
The provision of Western-dominated maritime transportation services, including insurance and finance, would be allowed only if the Russian oil cargoes are purchased at or below the price level "determined by the broad coalition of countries adhering to and implementing the price cap.
From the beginning, it was clear that the Kremlin would not accord Mr. Gorbachev the aplomb of a grand state ceremony that characterized funerals of his Soviet predecessors. It was not broadcast live by state television, and there were no lines of sobbing people in gray coats, carrying red carnations.
“It’s the same with poor working environments and conditions,” Smith said. “Word travels fast in a field. If a company has a reputation for being a poor environment, the culture will need significant change, or it’ll have to offer an incredibly high wage to attract talent.” The outlook for the remainder of 2022 is promising as companies are starting to realize that work environments and conditions are equally as important as pay.
“This generation of workers has a totally different mindset than generations past,” Smith added. “The days of taking a job at 18 and staying until you are 60, regardless of conditions, are long gone. Even the days of staying on board until you’re headhunted away are slowly fading off. Workers now are starting to see the benefits of work-life balance and prioritizing happiness over loyalty, security, and money.”
A week ago, citing Turkish Defense Ministry sources, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported that Greek surface-to-air missiles had locked on to Turkish F-16 fighter jets carrying out a reconnaissance mission in international airspace. Greek officials dismissed the account with a statement from the Defense Ministry saying that five Turkish jets appeared without prior notification to accompany a flight of U.S. B-52 bombers through an area subject to Greek flight control, the Associated Press reported.
The incident was only the latest in a series of claims by Turkey, and pushback from Greece that has prompted both countries to lodge complaints with NATO.
Endy Zemenides, executive director of the Hellenic American Leadership Council, likened Turkey’s behavior to that of China, which has made sweeping claims of sovereignty over the sea and its natural resources, antagonizing neighboring countries, including Taiwan, and Vietnam.
"Turkey considers the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean in the same way that China considers the South China and the East China Seas, and the way China has been infringing on the area and making additional claims is what Turkey has been doing," he told Fox News Digital.
He added that a mix of internal and external factors had left Turkey feeling increasingly isolated and vulnerable, pushing Erdogan to focus on foreign policy and tensions with Greece to deflect from domestic problems.
Greece and Turkey have been locked in a maritime and territorial dispute for decades, but with shifting geopolitical alliances and the discoveries of natural gas and oil in regional waters, relations have deteriorated sharply not only impacting NATO, but also bilateral ties to the U.S. and other countries in the immediate region.
In 2020, the two states clashed over exploratory drilling rights in the sea where Greece and Cyprus claim exclusive economic zones. That incident led to a naval standoff between the two countries. More recently, Turkey has watched with increasing suspicion and frustration as Greece has grown closer to regional allies such as Israel, Egypt and France, as well as the United States.
In May, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis addressed a joint session of Congress warning that in light of the war in Ukraine, NATO could not allow a "further source of instability on its south-eastern flank." Mitsotakis’ visit to Washington, which finalized a Greek purchase of F-35 fighter jets, drew condemnation from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who charged that its neighbor was lobbying against U.S. arms sales to Turkey.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan observes a military exercise in Izmir, Turkey, on June 9, 2022. President Erdogan observed the final day of a large-scale joint military exercise in Turkey's western Izmir province on Thursday. (Xinhua via Getty Images)
However, one person was conspicuously absent. Citing a busy schedule, President Vladimir V. Putin did not attend the proceedings. Instead, he paid his last respects to Mr. Gorbachev on Thursday, bringing a bouquet of flowers to his coffin at the hospital in Moscow.
Mr. Putin’s absence sent a clear message: While the Kremlin wanted to avoid any direct condemnation of a person who was once at its helm, it also wanted to distance itself from the symbol of an era whose legacy Mr. Putin is now largely trying to undo.
Ankara has faced sanctions from Washington over its ties with Russia, most notably a 2019 purchase of an advanced Russian missile defense system, but Turkey’s powerful role in NATO has forced the Biden administration to walk back its approach. In June, when NATO leaders met in Madrid, the prospect of fighter jets for Turkey was raised by the president as he worked to secure Turkish support for Sweden and Finland’s accession to the organization.
Turkey’s initial opposition to those countries joining NATO, as well as its close ties with Russia, have put it at odds with the U.S. and other members, including Greece, whose role as a strategic security partner for the U.S. has only been growing. In recent months, the Greek port of Alexandroupolis, which sits adjacent to Turkey and Bulgaria in the northern Aegean Sea, has become a central focal point as the U.S. increases its military presence in Eastern Europe.
According to statistics collected by Zemenides' orgranization, this year has seen a dramatic increase in Turkish violations of Greek national airspace from 618 in the first half of 2021 to some 2,377 during the same period in 2022. In addition, Turkish jets have begun flying over inhabited islands belonging to Greece, coming very close to the mainland not too far from the Alexandroupolis port.
US AFFIRMS GREEK SECURITY IN FACE OF TURKISH BELLIGERENCE
"It’s not one project or another," said Zemenides, pointing to the EastMed Forum, which includes Greece but excludes Turkey, the Abraham Accords between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, defense agreements between Greece and the U.S., and another with France.
"Turkey sees a picture with all these guys together and the other picture is of Erdogan with Putin and Iran holding hands," he said. "Turkey has bet on its Eurasia orientation, they have bet other partners and it is starting to boomerang as its economy suffers with high inflation, so now they’re following the playbook of external tensions to distract everybody from domestic difficulties."