Turkey: The expediencies of its proclivities in the Aegean

It is supposed that summers in the Aegean should be "calm". This is imposed at least by the "Papoulias-Yilmaz memorandum" of 1988, but also by the practice followed by Greece and Turkey in previous years, with this "tradition" being disrupted from 2020 onwards.

Turkey appears to be instrumentalizing the policy of overflights and violations, in the context of the "graying" of the Aegean islands, according to its policies, as well as the imposition of new acts with the aim of rubber stamping its "Blue Homeland" doctrine.

Overflights and violations that never cease, even during holidays and high tourist traffic times, while they try to send their own "messages" to Greece's allies, such as the USA. With the violation of Greek airspace a few miles from the Alexandroupolis base in May being characterized as indicative of Ankara's hardening stance.

State deficit in the first seven months of 2022 at 6.09 billion euros

The barrage of 39 violations of the national airspace of Greece on the 15th of August, the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin, with three overflights and three mock dogfights, must be seen in this context. With overflights and violations by Turkish aircraft continuing over the following days, as on Wednesday there were a total of 45 violations of Greek airspace, one of which was an overflight.

According to the Greek General Staff, the violations were carried out by 12 F-16 fighters and an unmanned aircraft, which were identified and intercepted.

Turkish F-16s

And all this while Turkey is in the process of discussions with the US regarding its request for new F-16s and upgrade kits for its ageing fighter fleet. And with the Turkish Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs, Hulusi Akar and Mevlut Cavusoglu, making it...