With international credit ratings agency Standard & Poor’s announcing Greece’s credit rating as BB on Oct. 25, the country's debt is rated higher than Turkey's for the first time in some ten years.

Turkey’s rating was lowered to B+, the previous level of Greece, last August.

Greece's ratings have consistently increased in the last six years, while the trend for Turkish debt has been the opposite.

Friday’s rating increase by S&P was the fifth in the last six years, while Turkey lost its investment grade rating achieved in 2013 and joined the significant speculative classification of countries last year. Greece’s latest rating, on the other hand, raised the country from significant speculative to speculative.

Greece had for many years survived financially thanks to European Union funding following the 2008 financial crisis and was unable to borrow for itself in the international bond markets for nine years. In the last two years, however, the economy stabilised and Greece returned to the bond market with a lower borrowing rate than Turkey enjoys.

Greece’s five-year Eurobonds, effectively protected by the prospect of future EU bailouts, if needed, trade at 0.44 percent interest, according to the latest market prices, while rates for Turkey’s bonds of the same maturity are as much as 3.71 percent.

Risk premium pricing shows a similarly divergent situation for the two countries. Greece’s 5-year credit default swaps (CDS) trade at 168 basis points, while Turkey’s are at 360. The swaps are bought by investors to protect their bond purchases against possible non-repayment.

Greece’s performance over the last two years and the increase in its credit score pose financial and economic risks for Turkey. For international investment funds, one of two rivals in the same region achieving a more positive rating could trigger a flight of funds from the other -- not necessarily due to any expectation, but by a mathematical calculation to balance the countries in their investment basket.

The issue is also significant for international politics: Greece’s previous financial malaise proved a major propaganda tool for the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey. The AKP government did not refrain from comparing its neighbour's financial crisis with its own financial success.

In 2012, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan mockingly called Greece “the country that sold its islands”.

But in the seven years since, Turkey has turned into a country that gives away the cheapest citizenship around in return for real estate purchases to find a way out of its economic crisis, and is planning to sell public land to create revenue for the budget in 2020.

Turkey has committed violations of democratic and legal rights, political tensions with the West are high, regulations break free market principles and economic stagnation persists.

The autocratic Erdoğan is pushing the political, democratic and economic limits to stay in power and is virtually wrecking the institutional structure of the state to score wins for himself at the expense of Turkey.