Welcoming a new month and a new season, we enter a new era where the political wit and diplomatic wisdom of the International Turkish community proves to be more critical than ever.

We owe this unique period to Europe's counterphobic reactions against Turkey's moves towards economic independence. With France and Austria leading the Turkey-bashing charade, some EU countries debate whether Greece's presumptuous suspicions are right in interpreting Turkey's energy surveys as camouflage for invasion.

Whether that pretext sets the scene for war between the EU member Greece and non-EU member Turkey clashing their NATO-member militaries in the Aegean or not is definitely good fodder for prime time news but in reality it is going overboard.

No one knows what sparks this paranoia but when the Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz becomes the unexpected front man of the European angst against Turkey, it does look like some people are going off the deep end over Turkish presence in Europe.

Oddly enough the supposedly unforced, 'self-confessed' and unnamed spy case in Austria working for the Turkish Secret Service, is followed by the desperation of Chancellor Kurz openly pleading that the Europeans 'not give in to Erdogan'.

As the case says more of Europe than Turkey, it indicates various spy scenarios brewing in the minds of the European elite and makes one wonder if Kurz has any idea of the scale of the European intelligence running amok in Turkey for decades.

He may also need to be informed that Austria backing Greece in the 'Turkish invasion paranoia' actually looks as absurd and insane as Slovenia hypothetically throwing a fit over Austria's energy surveys at a border town, with Serbia backing Slovenia against Austria, hollering "Giving in to Kurz and Austria, would be saying good night to the Balkans".

Maybe in this new period, we will need to draw more of these geographic and demographic comparisons to save our European friends from such embarrassing rants. Or maybe we just need to remind them of the running Turkish joke on this topic, which says that "if Turkey wanted to invade the 10 million population of Greece, all that's needed is to have the 18 million population of Istanbul pass the border as tourists". 

The joke implies that Turks do not need expensive energy survey spending to invade, but we are talking about the Trojan-minded Greeks, carrying the genetic makeup that prides on winning wars through hiding soldiers in a gift. That deceptive mindset so bent on hiding the reality naturally expects the same from their perceived enemy.

Turks are used to announcing their conquest with a loud band of musicians, the 'Mehteran', marching before the army to scare their enemy. So the Greeks and their European chaperones just have to accept that warrior Turks with their second-largest army of NATO fame will not resort to carrying out a silly invasion plan with their military warships dedicated to protecting an energy survey vessel.

So let's all take a break from this madness and look at our pride and joy in Europe: Turkish-Austrian fashion designer Atil Kutoglu is one of the first names that comes to mind. Turkish musical genius Fazil Say partly living in Vienna is another great example. We also have our world champion fencer and model Elke Lale van Achterberg launching a modeling agency. And our globetrotter of the week offering a display of the Turkish appreciation of Vienna should be good enough for Kurz.

Celebrating Caglar Ertugrul's Best Actor award, feel free to recommend "Scent of My Daughter" to your European friends. The Turkish-American production portrays the harrowing consequence of the 2016 ISIS attack in France, which took place most likely because of European paranoia disregarding Turkey's NATO-border-patrolling intelligence.

Wishing you a great week countering counterphobia.