Greece protested against flights by Turkish fighter jets over the Aegean islands. Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias told Athens newspaper Kathimerini (Sunday) that the numerous overflights by fighter-bombers were a blatant violation of international law and not in line with recent efforts to ease tensions between Athens and Ankara. .
From Monday to Saturday, Turkish fighter jets violated Greek airspace more than 200 times and flew over Greek islands in the Aegean Sea at least 30 times. Some planes flew over the Greek islands at an altitude of just 460 meters.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis met in Istanbul in March after a long ice age between the two NATO countries and announced that they want to reduce tensions in the region to avoid NATO’s southeastern flank in view of the Additional burden of war in Ukraine.
Greece: preparing islands for defense
Turkey denies Greek sovereignty over several islands in the eastern Aegean Sea because they are not demilitarized. Turkey has already sent corresponding notifications to the United Nations in recent months. Turkey argues that the militarization of the islands is not in accordance with the treaties of Lausanne (1923) and Paris (1947).
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Greece, on the other hand, refers to the numerous landing craft off the west coast of Turkey that threatened the islands. Therefore, the islands would have to be armed for defense. From the point of view of the Greek government, the Charter of the United Nations justifies these defensive measures.