With a barrage of moves on the diplomatic chessboard, Athens responds to the Turkish provocation that manifested yesterday with 168 violations in the Aegean – of which 41 were overflights. Athens had already reacted immediately to Ankara’s moves by protesting to the Turkish ambassador. However, Turkey continued the provocations with violations until 9 pm on Wednesday. In fact, the prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis already informed the secretary general by phone of NATO Jens Stoltenberg for Turkey’s behavior, which “undermines NATO cohesion”, is “illegal and reprehensible”. At the same time, the Ministry of Defense is on alert has already activated air defense on the islands.
So, after overflights of Turkish fighter jets over the Greek islands of the Dodecanese, according to information from military sources, the anti-aircraft systems located in the islands of the Eastern Aegean came out of the camps and deployed in the positions provided by the plans.
If required and as long as the Turkish provocation is repeated with new overflights over inhabited Greek islands such as Rhodes, Samos, Kos, Leros, Karpathos and Kalymnos, the possibility of Greek air defense on the islands should not be ruled out. to trap Turkish fighter jets.
As first move, the government decided to put the military talks “on ice” Confidence Building Measures, shifting them, vaguely, “for the future” as typically noted by government sources. “Turkish actions are unacceptable, they are a violation of the country’s sovereignty and this is a challenge that does not remain unanswered,” commented government spokesman Giannis Oikonomou, referring to the freezing of Greek-Turkish meetings on Confidence Building Measures.
He added that the Turkish provocations “are in no way in line with the spirit and content of the recent meeting of the Prime Minister with the Turkish President”.
And all this shows that “the climate is not conducive to MOE meetings“, Said the government spokesman.
The second move of Athens is the new, for the second consecutive day, protest action towards Ankara. Thus, by order of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nikos Dendias, the Secretary General of the Ministry Themistoklis Demiris carried out, a while ago, new intense protest to the Turkish Ambassador regarding the unprecedented number of violations of Greek airspace and overflights of Greek territory from above, including several residential areas, which took place during the day.
The Secretary General stressed that The continuing Turkish provocative and delinquent behavior, which violates Greek sovereignty, is absolutely condemnable and unacceptable.
Apart from the obvious fact that it is a blatant violation of international law, the Secretary General added that with the unilateral responsibility of Turkey, these actions create a climate of particular tension in the relations between the two countries, which contradicts the efforts to improve this climate.
Alongside, undermine NATO’s cohesion at a particularly critical juncture in the wider region.
Athens’s third move is to inform officials of the EU, NATO, UN, ICAO, as well as UN Security Council member states about the Turkish behavior.
For its part, the official opposition reacted through the former Foreign Minister George Katrougalos and the relevant head of SYRIZA, who commenting on barrage of Turkish overflights over the Greek islands, he said that the policy of the faithful and given is deadlocked.
Invites the Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during meeting at the White House with US President Joe Biden on May 16 to make specific demands US commitments “And definitely not selling F-16s in Turkey.”
Barrage of Turkish overflights over our islands. The policy of the “faithful and given” is deadlocked. In the meeting with President Biden, the Prime Minister should demand specific US commitments, and definitely not sell the F16 to Turkey.
– George Katrougalos (@gkatr) April 28, 2022
The KINAL reacted with a statement by the foreign policy adviser Mr. Sotiris Serbou. In particular, he said: “Since the day after the Mitsotakis-Erdogan meeting, during which the Prime Minister launched a new round of military Confidence-Building Measures, as PASOK-Movement for Change, we have been wondering on the basis of which agenda we will discuss.
The international legitimacy or the revision agenda of Turkey that still talks about conditional sovereignty of large Greek islands? An agenda that systematically unfolds in
air and sea. With a barrage of illegal overflights of Turkish fighters. On the major issue of national security, the Prime Minister exposed the country and undermined
its reliability. And now, of course, he decides, back and forth! “Once again, Turkey is setting the agenda and we are reverently monitoring it.”
“The daily records of Turkish overflights and violations of Greek airspace” tear “the main argument of the current government, like all previous ones, that” our country’s participation in dangerous Euro-NATO plans shields the country’s sovereign rights over Turkish ones ” . The country’s involvement in the imperialist war in Ukraine was also based on this argument. ” points out the KKE in its comment.
“After two months of war, the following have happened – among other things:
– Record of overflights and violations of Greek airspace.
– Exercises of Turkey, with scenarios of landing and occupation of an islet (obviously Greek) and with the presence of American and other NATO officials.
– Statements of the Minister of National Defense of Greece that “it is not a good time to say things against Turkey in NATO” “adds the party’s comment and concludes:
“In the end, what our people say is absolutely true: ‘If you have such friends, what can you do to make them your enemies?’
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