As a Turk, before visiting Greece, my knowledge of the country was limited to what I learned in school about the Turkish War of Independence and their attempts to claim things like baklava and cacık as their own. I never truly viewed them as the 'arch-enemy' of Turks. However, when I actually went to Greece, I was shocked—unlike you.

Their news cycles revolve around Turks from morning till night. They are incredibly paranoid and obsessed with this issue. I don’t know if it’s the politics or the media, but it was startling to see a country almost built upon anti-Turkish sentiment. In reality, people in Turkey don't really care about Greeks at all; they aren't on our radar.

It was particularly funny to see them claiming cultural elements that even Turks originally adopted from Arabs as their own. They have zero knowledge of Turkish history; they think 'Turk' is synonymous only with the Ottoman Empire and hold absurd, nonsensical beliefs like the idea that all Turks are DNA-wise 'half-Greek.' The only common ground I saw was that, like us, they are exposed to heavy propaganda—except they seemed much more aggressive about it.

I didn't have a 'bad' experience in terms of physical confrontation or mistreatment, but while this might not represent everyone’s opinion, the Greek state—and especially their consulates in Turkey—is terrible. I am sure there are enlightened people there, and I hope they can break free from this paranoia. Instead of obsessing over such nonsense in a positive environment like the European Union, and getting into debt buying weapons from countries like France and Germany, they should accept history as it is and invest in education, healthcare, and the economy to bring prosperity to their country.