Constantinople, Manolis Kostidis

In today’s (Monday) front page article, the Turkish pro-government newspaper Milliyet speaks of an “evil alliance” so that Turkey does not acquire state-of-the-art American F-35 fighter jets. “Greece is planning to get F-35s to gain air superiority” the publication states, at a time when our country already has upgraded F-16 and Rafale fighters.

“Now Athens and Gülenists have started propaganda against Turkey not to get the F-35s” it is claimed.

Fidan did not deny the scenarios for the S-400

For his part, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, responding to a related question, did not deny the scenarios of storing the S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems in order to acquire the F-35 fighters. He stated that “US sanctions on Turkey must be lifted.”

“On the CAATSA (US federal law, which aims to tighten sanctions against Iran, North Korea and Russia) sanctions and the F-35 process, are concrete steps expected in the near future? There have been allegations that the US side has made unacceptable offers (storage) regarding the S-400s. Is it true?’ was the journalistic question.

“As you said yourself, these are allegations… We are setting out our position on the framework issues, especially on the critical content of the negotiations, but apart from that, we have a methodical attitude of not revealing too much about our positions on what what we will do, when and how we will do it until we reach our ultimate goal. There is one principle here that we always stick to. The CAATSA issue was one of the issues that affected the alliance relations between Turkey and the US. We have to get out of this,” replied Hakan Fidan.

“Dendias lit the fuse”

“Dendias opened up the issue of the continental shelf and territorial waters that is being discussed on both coasts of the Aegean and stated that all the islands of the Aegean have the right to territorial waters of 12 miles” reports the TELE1 network in its report.

“The Minister of Defense of Greece, Nikos Dendias, lit the fuse of the debate with this statement. Now again the territorial waters, the continental shelf and the EEZ in the Aegean region where the coasts and islands are entangled are in the news. Now the territorial waters and the continental shelf of the Dodecanese, which Greece has militarized illegally, will be discussed,” it was reported.

“How nice of him to say it! He tells us “off the coast of Halicarnassus we have an island, we will expand it to 12 miles”. Well, if you want, come and we’ll give you Halicarnassus too!” commented the presenter of the Turkish channel.

Annoyance of Ankara for the lifting of the arms embargo in Cyprus

In the meantime, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs characterizes the extension of the lifting of the arms embargo in Cyprus as a “serious mistake”.

It was announced that the US will again extend the decision taken in September 2020 to lift the arms embargo against the “Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus”, (Republic of Cyprus) which extended its scope in 2022 and extended it in 2023, for one year from October 1, 2024. We agree with the views recorded in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on this matter. This serious mistake will increase the equipment on the island and damage the delicate balances in the region,” claims the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

“We believe that in view of the increasing armament activities of the “Greek Cypriot administration of Southern Cyprus” (Republic of Cyprus), the “TDRBC” will take all kinds of measures to increase its defensive and deterrent capabilities,” he states.

In today’s front page, the Turkiye newspaper claims for its part that “Israel and the US are implementing a plan to occupy Cyprus, sending aircraft, weapons and submarines”.

Turkey