New Greek allegation of Turkish violation

The national Greek news agency, sighting unanimous sources, said two Turkish F16 fighter jets came as close as 1,000 feet to the Greek passenger plane without causing any problems for the passengers inside the plane.

However there was no immediate response from the Greek government — that has been increasing accusations of alleged Turkish violations of its airspace and territorial waters — before TDN went to print yesterday evening.

The Greek agency’s latest violation allegation, which also included a "harassment" accusation, followed a statement from Greek Government Spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos earlier this week saying that Athens has made all the necessary attempts concerning its complaints regarding the violation of Greek airspace by Turkish military aircraft. He said Greek officials had informed NATO and the European Union term presidency about the Turkish violations in the Aegean.

Greek officials have been alleging not only violations by Turkish military aircraft, but also saying that Turkish and Greek jets have engaged in mock dogfights from time to time as a result of these violations.

Turkish officials strongly denied these accusations each time, saying that they stemmed from a 10-mile airspace claim by Greece despite international law dictating 6-miles.

Turkey and Greece have been holding talks to resolve the dispute since the EU asked Ankara and Athens, two years ago, to do so. If they fail by the end of this year they will take the matter to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, according to the EU decision. No concrete outcome has been made public of Turkish-Greek negotiations yet.

EU-member Greece’s complaint comes as Turkey awaits a decision from the European leaders in a Brussels summit next month on whether to open accession negotiations with Ankara. Long-standing disputes over airspace and territorial rights in the Aegean have nearly led to three wars between the two NATO allies since 1974.