The map that Greek Armed forces chief Houpis gave to Archbishop Bartholomew angered the Turks

The Ministry of National Defense, citing sources, clarifies that the gift was purely symbolic in nature and characterizes Turkey's reactions as "stupid."

According to military sources, the map that General Houpis gave to the Patriarch is the "Thraciae Veteris Typus" of 1585, the work of the Flemish cartographer and geographer Abraham Ortelius. The map in question depicts the wider geographical area of ​​Thrace, including the Dardanelles Straits, the Propontis, the Bosporus, Constantinople, the Black Sea and the islands of Imbros, Tenedos, Lemnos, Samothrace and Thassos.

“The map was chosen as a symbolic gift to His Holiness, because it depicts his special homeland, Imbros,” the same sources note, adding meaningfully that the Turkish discomfort with a 16th-century map is at least puzzling — especially from a country that continues to invoke the non-existent, according to International Law, map of the “Blue Homeland”.

"For "sources" of the Ministry of Defense of Turkey, a country that in 2025 invokes a map of the "Blue Homeland", to protest about a map of this specific historical period, borders on humility," emphasized the sources of the Ministry of National Defense.

Turkey's reaction

It is recalled that the action of the Chief of the Hellenic National Defense Staff to offer the said map during his visit to the Phanar, on the sidelines of the 18th Summit of the Chiefs of Armed Forces of the Balkan Countries, provoked the reaction of the Turkish Ministry of Defense, according to reports in Turkish media, such as the newspaper Sözcü.

Anonymous sources in the Turkish Ministry of Defense spoke of "instrumentalizing the past", claiming that such moves are nothing more than "nostalgic consolations" and calling on Greek officials to "understand and accept the facts".