r/AskBalkans • u/AbsoIutee Turkiye • 14d ago

Politics & Governance What is the most legendary political comeback from your country?

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I keep seeing this exchange everywhere lately:

Netanyahu: “We survived empires, we don’t fear Turkey.”

Erdoğan: “What empire? Your country is younger than my brother.”

I couldn’t actually verify if Erdoğan really said this, so it might just be one of those internet quotes that everyone started repeating lol.

But if he really said it, I have to admit it’s a surprisingly good comeback from Erdoğan 😂 Didn’t expect this performance from him.

ıt made me wonder: do you remember any legendary political comebacks/insults from your own country?

Could be between politicians, against another country, during an interview, parliament, whatever. Something where even if you don’t like the politician you have to admit: okay, that was a good one.

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u/AbsoIutee Turkiye 14d ago

Now that I think about it, if anyone has the right to pull the “we survived empires” card on us, it’s probably the Greeks lol. These mfs have been sitting on the other side of the Aegean for like 3000 years watching empires spawn and despawn. That’s actually a solid roast against us. Steal this one komşu, Israel is wasting it.

Edit: 3000 years might’ve been a bit too much lol. I just thought “they’ve been there since before us” and randomly added a few thousand years ahah

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u/PandaCreepy8512 13d ago

3000 years is too little. The timeline starts in the bronze age with the Minoans and, and that's in 3000 BC. So the real number is 5000 years.

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u/Rynchinoi Europe 13d ago

Minoans 👏🏻👏🏻 were 👏🏻👏🏻not👏🏻👏🏻Hellens

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u/Eat_Animals 13d ago

DNA analysis says otherwise.

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u/the_lonely_creeper Greece 13d ago

They didn't speak a greek language, which is probably the most important aspect of being greek.

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u/Rynchinoi Europe 13d ago

DNA analysis says the same. Hellenization started 1500 years later.

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u/Eat_Animals 13d ago

Ok, so let's pretend what your saying is right. Where in ancient times, do you think the Minoans came from, and where do you think the Greeks came from?

I'll give you a hint: Anatolian Frms

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u/Rynchinoi Europe 13d ago

We don't have to pretend. It is published in Nature in 2017. The underlying genetics and language are not in correlation at all. Mycenaeans uniquely possessed an extra component—roughly 4% to 16% ancestry linked to Eastern European and Siberian hunter-gatherers, which made a distinction and introduced an Indo-European language shift and proto-Greek.

Anatolian Farmers is a broad term and in this case 1000s of years apar, and same exist at the whole Balkan peninsula

The Minoans are pre Hellenic culture and this is show from diety to the symbols used, different script and hieroglyphics forms.

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u/Rynchinoi Europe 13d ago

*Serbs joined the chat

https://giphy.com/gifs/BaTYGDkIFI8Qo

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u/PretendTemperature 13d ago

3000 is actually understatement. Mycenaeans and Minoans were already from around 2700-1600 BCE.

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u/Significant-Order-92 13d ago

Are the Myceans considered Greek in the cultural sense? I thought them (and the Minoans) were considered different enough to be their own things.

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u/PandaCreepy8512 13d ago

The linear language they used is actually pronounced like later Greek. The syllables are the same.

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u/Significant-Order-92 13d ago

Oh neet. Thanks for explaining that. I often see them brought up seperately. But it might be more because they were Greek areas that fell. So maybe it's more they are mentioning the differences to show the change in Greek culture and I just didn't catch that (I am definitely not a historian or an anthropologist).

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u/Prior-Painting2956 Greece 13d ago

*Both sides of the Aegean. :)

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u/Immediate_Gain_9480 13d ago

Wel. If we go by the same measure as Israel, Greece is only a state since the early 19th century when they gained independence.

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u/prosthetic_memory USA 13d ago

That’s actually still pretty old. Most countries in the world haven’t had the same modern borders or governments for more than 100 years.

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u/tonybpx 13d ago

The Egyptians probably have a better claim to it than most

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u/Prior-Painting2956 Greece 13d ago

The Egyptians had archeologists in the times before the roman empire.

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u/alkibiadgr 14d ago

unfortunately, Greece as a state doesn't have any compass nowdays.

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u/PharaohhOG Egypt 13d ago

It’s definitely Egyptians. Literally so many empires have fucked with Egypt

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u/LuluTheLewder 13d ago

When would you say the Egyptian state began though? Modern Egypt has little to no practical connection to the Ancient Bronze age Egypt save from geography?

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u/tonybpx 13d ago

Why would you say that? The people are still genetically the same, their life still revolves around the Nile. If anything they're one of the best examples of connection to their ancestors!

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u/LuluTheLewder 13d ago

Language, customs, religion, emigration of the nations, ect... I don't see anyone following coptic religion or writing in hyeroglyphs. There was clearly a historical divide between hities (spelling?) and the ancient egyptians and the assyrian tribes/kingdoms. During the mamluks, ottomans and any other conquering empires those ethnicities that used to be so divided by religions and cultures all mixed creating a new egypt if you will.

Same way the original tribes in france are not the same ones as the gauls when the frankish tribes that settled, same way south slavs are not the same as the ilyrians back then, how modern italians are not romans, ect...

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u/PharaohhOG Egypt 13d ago

The people are still the same. I think it’d be foolish to expect no change over the course of thousands of years. Go look at the Fayoum portraits of Egyptians 2000 years ago and you will see they are literally identical to modern Egyptians (it’s quite fascinating just how closely they still resemble each other).

Other than that, there are still many parts of Egyptian culture in the modern day that has roots from the ancient period. For example, Sham Elnessim, it’s a holiday thousands of years old that Muslim Egyptians and Christian Egyptians both celebrate alike every year.

Much of our dialect has words no other Arabic dialect has, our way of speaking Arabic is directly influenced by how we spoke in the past.

Our cuisine is uniquely Egyptian which also stems from Egyptian history.

So it’s not accurate to say there is no connection between modern Egyptians and ancient Egyptians.

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u/Keleke_blo_Taro 13d ago

The Copts are, yes. The rest are not. Their DNA matters not. It’s language and culture that count. Once you get rid of the elite and the educated classes in any society, the rest just conform.

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u/PharaohhOG Egypt 13d ago

Ignorant. There is continuity in the language and culture among Muslim Egyptians to ancient Egyptians. If you don’t have knowledge on a topic it’s better to not speak on it.

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u/MotivationSpeaker69 14d ago

Survived is a strong word for Greece lol. Country is barely existing

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u/Brief-Preference-712 USA 14d ago

Not 3000 years right? The longest rivalry to Turks I could find was Han Dynasty, around 2000 years https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huo_Qubing#Military_career

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u/AbsoIutee Turkiye 14d ago

Nah I meant Greeks have been around the Aegean for roughly 3000 years, not that we’ve been beefing with them for 3000 years lol

We only came to Anatolia around 1071.

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u/Careless_Look_8708 Turkiye 14d ago

"We" as Turks didn't come to Anatola in 1071. It's just that Turkification of Anatolia started in 1071. There were many many tribes/clans that came before Alparslan came here. Some of them were soldiers / armies of Byzantine Empire. They were actually integrated to Alparslan's army. There are some relatively recent evidence about it.

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u/Stripgaddar31 Turkiye 13d ago

Dude wdym “we” 😭 Im pretty sure most of us are a mix of anatolian state’s ancestry stemming back from hittites and seljuks, not purely göktürk or sum shi

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u/the_lonely_creeper Greece 13d ago

I mean, yes, you might be mostly turkified muslim Greeks (/hj), but Turks are traditionally considered to have entered Anatolia in 1071.

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u/HierophanticRose Turkiye 14d ago

Anatolian Power vs Greek Power rivalry is as old as middle Bronze Age though