Tsavousoglou: ‘What do you mean Greek airspace?’ – He disputes Greece’s ownership of islands and islets

Mevlut Cavusoglu made new provocative statements about the national airspace and the Greek islands of the Aegean, speaking to the state-owned TRT Haber.

The Turkish foreign minister referred to the upgrade of Turkish F-16s by the US and did not hesitate to state that Turkey will continue to violate Greece’s airspace, using the excuse that Ankara recognizes the 6 miles of airspace for Greece and not 10 miles.

“The obstacles in front of the F-16 must be removed. The talks at the technical level have been extremely positive so far. The result was a decision to be made in the US House of Representatives, of course this decision is not binding. A decision will be made in the Senate and then these two decisions will be combined in one document, that is, there will be a synthesis of the two. There will be harmonization. Then a joint decision will be made,” says Cavusoglu.

And he continues: “There are also restrictions in Turkey and you can see how much effort we put into removing them. This came about with Sweden and Finland joining NATO. Besides, we want to buy from our allies. Of course, we made an effort to buy F-16s from the US. But we can’t say yes to a method that will tie our hands. What do they say there?…Greek airspace. What do you mean Greek airspace? There are islands that Greece says are hers, islands and islets whose ownership status is not clear and which have not been granted by agreements”.

“Now they claim 10 miles”

Cavusoglu notes that the US has a deviation from the balanced policy it was following, both in Cyprus and between Turkey and Greece. “The US must return to this policy of balance again. There are also members of Greek descent in the US Congress. The lobbies are also active. Mitsotakis himself has already pressed against the F-16 in his speech. As in other parts”.

They are now claiming 10 miles. With 6 miles of territorial waters claiming 10 miles of airspace, this is inconsistent with international law. This was stated in a letter sent by the US State Department to Congress. There is no question of not using those 4 miles. The US gives Greece defense industry materials. but they have also built bases. When you give a defense industry product to Greece, do you set some condition so that it does not violate Turkey’s airspace?”.

“The Greeks equip the islands”

As Mevlut Cavusoglu said:

“Some islands are signatories to the Lausanne Treaty of 1923 and some to the Paris Peace Agreement of 1947, an agreement to which Turkey was not a party. These islands were given to Greece on a non-military basis, that is, on the condition that don’t arm themselves. So what’s the real situation? Greece is arming these islands. That’s what we’re saying. We said that in the letters we wrote to the UN. While the sovereignty of these islands was given to Greece by these agreements, there was a condition. Greece violated the most important term and equips them, equips itself against Turkey”.

Source: TheTOC.gr