Greece: Arms Race in the Aegean Sea | European Journal

Greece is groaning under the burden of radical austerity measures, designed to get the country's debts under control. But at the same time, Athens, driven by fear of its neighbor Turkey, is continuing to build Europe's largest army.There's a long tradition of mistrust and anger between Turkey and Greece, owing to Turkey's occupation of northern Cyprus and the ongoing dispute over rights in the Aegean Sea. Greece has an army of 133,000 soldiers - that's the largest per head of population in Europe. And despite the country's economic crisis, Athens is continuing to buy up ships, submarines, military airplanes and German leopard tanks. But many of the bills have yet to be paid.