Talk about incredible Turkish audacity. Just 24-hours after Ankara sent several planes to purposely fly over the tomb of the Lieutenant Costas Iliakis (on the anniversary of his death) in the framework of provoking our sentiment on this day of remembrance, the Turkish General Staff announced that Greek fighter jets intercepted Turkish planes near the islands of Rhodes, Lesvos and Ikaria.
(In other words... Rhodes, Lesvos and Ikaria do not belong to Greece and Athens did not have a right to intercept the Turkish planes that flew over these islands! WTF?)
Defence officials who at times get so frustrated with all the stupidities that are announced from the Turkish side, now claim that this cat and mouse game with Turkey is purely a political issue and should be handled as such. They are right, because throughout the Deniz Kurdu 2013 naval exercises Turkey has been raising the issue of Greek sovereignty on more than one occasion. And as we all know when issues such as these cannot be handled by the Hellenic military then they must (and should) be addressed by our political leaders.
But getting back to the Greek provocation of Greek territorial waters - The Turkish General Staff claims that on 05/22/13, several Turkish warplanes (type F-16), that were performing training flights in international air space over the Aegean, were intercepted west of Rhodes from Greek F-16 fighter jets which took off from the Souda airport.
A similar announcement was made for the area northwest of Lesvos where Turkish fighters were apparently intercepted by Greek fighter planes that took off from Anchialo. Also, the Turkish side claims that the same thing also occurred south of Ikaria, but in this case the Turkish F-16's were intercepted by Greek F-4 planes which took off from the Skyros airport.
Friends, if we didn't know any better then we would guess that Turkey is expecting Greeks to automatically bend over backwards and welcome their fighter planes with open arms in Greek airspace. Defending our sovereignty is a no-no to Turkey. On the other hand,the bullies (meaning Turkey) can come and go as they please and even sail near Athens, or fly over the Greek islands whenever they feel the itch. Are they for real?
Last Thursday for example four Turkish aircraft entered the Athens FIR off in the southeastern Aegean and were intercepted by Greek aircraft. Two of them, Phantom aircraft with photographing capabilities, flew at 8,000 feet over the southeastern island of Agathonissi at 8:43 a.m., and joined by two F-16s that had entered the Athens FIR slightly earlier south of Samos. All four exited Athens FIR at 9:23 a.m. east of Rhodes.
And we ask, since our military cannot take care of this problem, shouldn't our government address these issues at a diplomatic level? Wouldn't it be wise for our leaders to also report these violations at both the United Nations as well as to the European Union? And lastly, why isn't the European Union handling this situation? Aren't Greek borders European borders?
And if you think that Ankara's audacity is limited to the skies only, think again. The Turks have also decided to provoke our sentiment at sea as well. For example earlier last week, or specifically on Wednesday, between the hours of 12:29 and 13:08 the Greek coastguard apparently violated Greek territorial waters at Imia. Yes, Greece's Imia!
Aside from painting grey zones in the Aegean the Turks have also turned black into white and claim that Greece is violating the area around Imia (which they say belongs to them) when all along they send fishing boats to the same area everyday in order to induce and maintain tension in the entire region.
Is there any justice in this world?
Are our leaders listening?
Source in Greek - http://www.defencenet.gr/defence/item/%CF%84%CE%BF%C
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