Greece on Alert following ‘Provocations’ from Turkey, Accuses Erdogan of “illegal expansionist designs.”

Greece on Alert following ‘Provocations’ from Turkey, Accuses Erdogan of “illegal expansionist designs.” 

By Anthee Carassava VOA

Greece has lodged a stiff demarche with Turkey claiming Turkish officials ordered fighter jets to buzz a military helicopter carrying Greece’s defense minister over the Aegean sea. Turkey denies the accusation, saying Greece — in the words of Turkish officials — is over dramatizing what Ankara says are routine flights in the region.

The government in Athens is concerned that  a fresh standoff in the Aegean could scare travelers who are starting to make vacation plans to the Greek islands once the coronavirus emergency ends. 
 
Greek government spokesman Stelios Petsas said Greece was ready to resist any Turkish provocation.  

He said harassment of the Greek defense minister’s plane by a group of Turkish warplanes over the Aegean Sea was indicative of what he called Turkey’s practice of breaching good neighbor relations and international rules. 
 
Greece and Turkey have had a long history of testy relations, each challenging the other’s claims to air, sea and land rights in the Aegean Sea that divides them. 

The two NATO allies have come to the brink of war three times in the last 30 years.  Athens most recently accused Ankara of orchestrating an invasion, a term Greek officials use to describe Turkey’s decision to allow and encourage tens of thousands of migrants who had been trapped in Turkey to push their way into Greece and the heart of Europe. 
 
Officials tell VOA Turkish warplanes came within 400 meters of the defense minister’s  military helicopter as he was travelling to inspect observation points on remote islands in the Aegean. 
 
Officials say the jets were quickly intercepted by Greek warplanes. But then, the officials said another sortie of Turkish firefighters continued to do dangerous maneuvers over the Aegean. Since then, 20 more aerial confrontations have followed despite Greece’s protest to Turkey. 
 
Officials in Ankara deny there has been any harassment. They say Turkish airplanes were merely conducting routine flights and accused Athens of exaggerating. 

It is not the first time Greek and Turkish warplanes have faced off over the Aegean. But tensions between the two countries have soared dramatically since Turkey’s bid to push more than 150,000 migrants into Greece. And now, officials here fear a new standoff, either in the sea, land or air that separates the two age-old rivals. 

In the last few days, authorities here captured video of the Turkish coast guard pushing migrant vessels to Greece, increasing refugee flows to a country already inundated with more than 100,000 asylum seekers. 
 
Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos  says it would be a false illusion or expectation for Greece to anticipate anything less from Turkey, especially after it has already made clear that will re-open its borders and allow migrants free access to Europe once it manages to contain the outbreak of the coronavirus in its country. 
 
How long that will take remains unclear. 

Greece has successfully managed its health crisis and is now easing restrictions nationwide.  There is concern that any fresh standoff in the Aegean may spook travellers from making plans to visit Greece and its sun-kissed islands this summer. 
 

22 April tensions were at a high. .
Turkey has been flying F-16 fighter jets over the Libyan coast as it steps up its intervention in the country’s civil war. It also has sent a vessel to drill for oil off the coast of Cyprus, angering the island republic and its sister state, Greece. The two EU members states have placed their militaries on alert for fear of what they call further provocations from Turkey as the government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces trouble back home. 
  
In a stinging statement, the Greek Foreign Ministry has accused Turkey of behaving in what it calls “delinquent” fashion … defying international rules and sending an exploratory vessel to drill for oil in waters for which Cyprus alone has rights.   

The government in Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, says the Turkish move is part of what it calls Ankara’s “illegal expansionist designs.” 

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