Ankara is curious to find out whether Panos Kammenos, the new defense minister of Greece, will continue with his campaign rhetoric or act like a proper statesman. A senior security official in Ankara who spoke to Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, said: “If he continues with his populist pre-election language in his new post, this will be a worrying development for us. But we have to see how he performs first.”
Greece's leftist Syriza party won a surprising victory in the Jan. 25 elections, but had to form a coalition government when, with 149 seats in 300-member parliament, it couldn’t go it alone. Young Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras acted quickly, as he had promised, and the next day announced formation of a coalition government with nationalist, right-wing party Independent Greeks, ANEL. Analysts are not having a easy time forecasting how Tsipras will cope with the myriad of tough challenges he is facing.
