Warplanes from Greece, Turkey Collide Over Aegean Sea

In an incident that will do nothing to ease escalating tensions between the two countries, Greek and Turkish warplanes collided during an "intercept" today over the Aegean Sea. Greek warplanes routinely challenge Turkish aircraft that enter claimed Greek airspace, which the Greeks say extends ten miles. Turkey only recognizes a six mile national airspace line. The countries have nearly been to war three times since 1974 over territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea.



Some serious saber rattling going on here.

This is a major Mediterranean flashpoint it seems is just looking for a reason to flare up. International pressure and diplomacy need to be brought to bear to ensure this doesn't escalate into a shooting war.

The Aegean Islands have great strategic importance to the area and the balance of power must be maintained to promote regional stability. The last thing the world needs right now is Greece and Turkey going to war and dragging Russia and the EU into it.

Related News Links:
www.isn.ethz.ch


[edit on 23-5-2006 by Icarus Rising]

I have read nothing about escalating tensions between the two countries, what is your basis for making that statement?

from the article

Relations between Greece and Turkey have been steadily deteriorating in recent months, despite Athens' promotion of Turkey's candidacy to join the European Union and Premier Costas Caramanalis' personal friendship with Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Just what I read on the link provided. To me, deteriorating relations equals escalating tension, so I made the decision to use that choice of words in my intro.


[edit on 23-5-2006 by Icarus Rising]

I think perhaps the writer of the original article took a little poetic license when he/she made that statement. From most indications, relations between the two countries have been improving steadily for some time. While it is true the two countries do not exactly love one another, there are certainly no indications or warning signs that they may be anywhere near hostilities.

I would simply chalk the incident up to an unfortunate accident.

Actually the two countries may seem all good, but History says it is not so.
Turkey and Greece have many issues that have not been in the so called Western MEDIA and things will get worse rather sooner then later......

The two countries, who came close to war as recently as 1996, have considerably improved ties but have not resolved territorial disputes in the Aegean Sea and over the divided island of Cyprus..

www.cnn.com...

Some corrections. There was a Greek F-16 colliding with a Turkish F-16 and there was only one pilot in each plane. The Turkish pilot (1st Lt. Halil Ibrahim Ozdemir) has been rescued while the Greek pilot is still missing.

Related ATS Thread:
Turkish Jet Violated Greek Airspace And Crashed With Greek Jet

I actually keep pretty close tabs on the two countries. I was stationed inside Turkey back in the 50's and witnessed first hand the animosity between them. I still have several friends inside Turkey, as well as here in the states and they keep me pretty well informed of the goings on there.

One of the jokes we used to tell about them was: If Russia attacked Turkey from the rear do you think Greece would help?

BTW, I was unaware there was a previous thread on this topic.

[edit on 23-5-2006 by Astronomer70]

That is a horrible joke! I still chuckled when I read it, though.

As helen says, there is deep-rooted division over the Cyprus issue, as well as territorial disputes regarding Turkish claims in the Aegean. There is also, as I understand, and perhaps helen would enlighten us further on this, quite a bit of endtime prophecy regarding the region and these two countries.

The only legitimate dispute that needs to be settled between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean is the delimitation of the Aegean continental shelf. On this topic, Greece has repeatedly invited Turkey to the negotiation table in order for the two sides to agree to a compromis for the referral of the dispute to the International Court of Justice. Turkey has repeatedly turned down Greece's invitation.

Beyond this, all other matters at times termed "Aegean disputes" by Turkey consist exclusively of arbitrary claims against Greek sovereignty put forth by Turkey in defiance of international law and agreements.

This Turkish practice has created great tension in the relations between Greece and Turkey. It has prevented the establishment of a long-lasting friendship between the two countries, which has always been -- and remains -- Greece's hope and goal. Peace, stability, and respect for international law are the only ways to ensure the necessary prosperity of Greece and Turkey and of their peoples, who have lived as neighbors and will continue to do so for centuries to come.

link

Things are not perfect. Turkey and Greece still have very real differences about Cyprus and about territorial disputes in the Aegean.

link


[edit on 23-5-2006 by Icarus Rising]

One of the jokes we used to tell about them was: If Russia attacked Turkey from the rear do you think Greece would help?

Why Russia attack Turkey?
Is this in their BOOKS?
that Russia will ATTACK Turkey?
Oh, and when that DOES happen, CONSTANTINOPLE will become Greek again...

they keep me pretty well informed of the goings on there.

Exactly what sort of 'goings on'' is there?

ps....tell you later why i ask...........

IX
helen

Just a few things to note on the Greco-Turkish relationships issue.

Things are not going good. They never did. There is huge controversy over the Muslim minority in Thrace, the Aegean 12 nautical milezones, and the Cyprus issue. There are also problems with the Ecumenical (Greek, that would be...) Patriarchate not functioning because of lack of religious freedom in Turkey, and the greek minority in Constantinople (or what's left of it) being seriously suppressed among other minorities.

Not a single of these problems has been solved, unfortunately. We just put them under the carpet, so that they could be solved by putting Turkey as a partner in the EU. Unfortunately, the first thing that Turkey could have done to improve our relationships, that would be allowing the Patriarchate and the Xalki Theological Seminary to function again, is far from happening, and will most likely not happen.
Turkey is experiencing huge problems internally right now, with the Kemalist and islamic forces struggling over power, and it has always been part of the Turkish policy to alleviate internal struggles by transfering the pressure in the external politics field. This is what happened here. It does not matter whether it was a planned issue or not, however it will certainly be used for that purpose.

The 12 nautical issue is always of great importance, and is probably never to be solved without direct war (thanks to the turkish casus beli). This is one of the most appropriate moments for this specific issue to arrise, since the fighterplanes crashed right in that disputed zone.

The Greco-Turkish war has been expected since 1924 after the population exchange was decided, and is actually a scenario of great interest for Russia (or the Soviet Union of that time). Greece is a good customer for Russian Arms ever since that time, splitting the purchases between NATO's and Russia's weaponry. Turkey, however, is a strictly NATO purchaser (although they do have some Russian weaponry through China). Russia is also greatly interested in the Marmara straights (right below Constantinople), which are strictly under Turkish rulership. Over the Marmara straights issue many Russo-turkish wars have happened throughout history.
In case the Greco-Turkish war expected becomes reality, Russia will most likely intervene to get hold of the Marmara straights + Constantinople. It is of vital importance to them.

Turkey has freedom of religion. Turkey is about as securalistic as a country can get.

I'm not talking about freedom regarding their religion, I'm talking about freedoms regarding the non-Islamic groups in Turkey. There are lots of Armenian, Greek, Roman Catholic and Syrian Christians in Turkey that are not allowed free worship.

Let's not forget the lack of freedom that Turkey's Kurdish population "enjoys".

Oh, and acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide is still strictly verboten as well.

The loss of the Greek pilot has been confirmed.

The body of a Greek pilot was found Tuesday, hours after his fighter jet collided with a Turkish F-16 during a mock dogfight over the southern Aegean Sea, according to Turkey's foreign ministry.

Greek and Turkish foreign ministers have spoken over the phone about the incident.

The two foreign ministers expressed their regret for today's incident and agreed that this should not affect the two countries' efforts to improve their relations.

Still, all in all, this looks like another bump in the road for historically rocky Greco-Turk relations.

"This incident will not do any good," Thanos Veremis, of the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy think tank, told Reuters. "I think it will increase Greek frustration."

link

Thank God both countries are part of the NATO otherwise we could have seen turkish tanks in Athens
Is funny when you read about "greek frustration" against the strongest military force in Europe. Greeks barkings about Cyprus are as pathetic as for the non existent Vorio Epir




[edit on 24-5-2006 by Telos]

Opa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!