Turkish warplanes violate Greek airspace 22 times within 24 hours
Source: International Business Times
Turkish fighter jets repeatedly intruded Greek airspace within a short time frame, Athens said. Though no live rounds were exchanged, Greek warplanes were deployed to intercept the Turkish jets leading to a tense aerial encounter.
Ankara's fleet comprising six warplanes and a navy transport plane have been cruising the skies above Greece's eastern and central Aegean islands, state-run Athens News Agency said on 15 February. No less than 22 times the Turkish flights are said to have entered Greek sovereign airspace.
Two of the six Turkish warplanes were armed. A Greek army staff was quoted as saying that two "virtual dogfights" took place between Turkish and Greek aircraft.
The brief altercation has come when Nato is planning to deploy naval patrols in the waters of Aegean Sea to check increasing human smuggling and migrant trafficking. The waters separating both the countries have been a vital route for refugees and eventually human traffickers as well.
This is also not the first time Turkish jets have flown into Greek territories resulting in tense confrontations. While Greece recognises 10 miles of airspace around an archipelago located in Turkish west coast, Ankara deems only six miles. Most of the aerial encounters happen only in the four-mile radius that is claimed by both. Both Greece and Turkey despite being a part of the Nato bloc have frequently engaged in territorial disputes.
Read more: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/turkish-warplanes-violate-greek-airspace-22-times-within-24-hours-1544036
emsimon33
(3,128 posts)The Cypriots are mainly Greek Cypriots. There are a lot of hard feeling about the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
trof
(54,256 posts)When flying from Greek airspace into Turkish airspace (and vice versa) the controller won't even tell you when to change radio frequencies.
It's silly.
ManiacJoe
(10,136 posts)Virtually all the islands in the Aegean Sea belong to Greece.
6 mile border leaves some navigation room in the sea.
The 10 and 12 mile borders give virtually the whole sea and its airspace to Greece.
This is something that Greece probably needs to live with. Turkish fighters flying over the Greek mainland would be a very different story.
Xithras
(16,191 posts)The United States controls all the land up to the Rio Grande river. It would be unacceptable for American fighter jets flying from Brownsville to El Paso to fly over Mexico without Mexico's permission, even though cutting through Mexican airspace would be substantially shorter.
Turkey's border is the sea. They need to stay on their side of the beach. The sea and islands belong to Greece because the people who live there are all Greek...and have been for at least 3000 years. If the Greeks don't want Turkish military aircraft flying over their islands, the Greeks shouldn't just have to live with it.
ManiacJoe
(10,136 posts)Using the 6-mile boundaries, there is international space; but it is not easy to get to/through.
brooklynite
(94,745 posts)Xolodno
(6,401 posts)...that absolutely hate each other.