Despite that the MOU meetings continued normally in Athens and the Mitsotakis trip to Ankara was “locked” for May 13, Turkey continues to move on the path of challenges. At every opportunity it is given, it challenges either Greek sovereignty, as was done recently with the environmental parks in the Cyclades and, in particular, the islets around Nisyros, or Greek jurisdiction that has to do with sequestering areas for exercises.
But especially in the last case, her… haste to question Greek jurisdiction leads her to rather ridiculous results. Typical is the case of the exercise for the needs of which Greece, through the hydrographic station of Heraklion, reserved an area south of Kastellorizos for April 22. The hydrographic station of Antalya hastened to issue an anti-NAVTEX without taking into account that the third country participating in the exercise was… Turkey! Units from Turkey, Greece and Spain participated in the specific exercise under a NATO “hat”.
The Spanish force that participated in this particular exercise was that of the mini-aircraft carrier “Juan Carlos”, a twin of the Turkish “Anadolu”, the disclosure of whose presence in the Aegean by “TA NEA” and the conclusions that the Greek Armed Forces would draw from it had caused surprise in the Turkish press.
Turkey reacted in the same way to the area commitments made by Greece for the exercise needs of the Spanish ship in the Aegean, issuing a NOTAM requesting that the Spanish AV8 “Harrier” fighters not fly west of the Karpathos, once again raising the issue demilitarization of the island, in which the name was even changed to… Scarpanto.
Greece not only did not pull the brakes, but proceeded to renew the commitment of the area in Karpathos for an additional period of time, namely from April 19 to 23, but also proceeded to “close” two more areas, increasing them from three to five . In the area of Karpathos, the exercise was scheduled for April 22. These areas were essentially distributed throughout the Aegean, from North to South.
Turkey uses the NOTAM and NAVTEX channel almost every day, challenging Greek jurisdiction both in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the Aegean. Competent sources, in fact, estimate that from today until April 27, when Athens closed two areas for Turkish aeronautical exercises, we may have the first violations in a long time, as Ankara once again found in its own NOTAM the opportunity to question the scope of the Hellenic Airspace.
It may be that these “thunderstorms” are not as “fussy” as the engines of the Turkish F-16s in the Aegean in the past, which also left a big mark on the “radar” of the international community, and especially of the USA and the EU, whose Ankara seeks support and acceptance, however, they are indicative of its unchanging revisionist attitude towards Greece. It is no coincidence, after all, the recent report of the Minister of National Defense, Nikos Dendias (“Parapolitical”):
“The calm on the field is clearly welcome. We must not forget, however, that Turkey is at a critical crossroads for the direction it will choose when Erdogan retires from active political activity. Therefore, as long as non-existent accusations remain on the table, such as for the casus belli, we must be prepared for all eventualities”.
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