Posted on 06/18/2003 5:40:02 AM PDT by a_Turk
A spate of skirmishing by Turkish and Greek military aircraft over the Aegean has cast a shadow over Greece's preparations for hosting Friday's Thessaloniki summit of European Union and accession candidates.
Last week an Olympic Airways aircraft on a flight from Athens to Istanbul took evasive action to avoid two Turkish F-16 aircraft that were seeking to intercept Greek F-16s. The incident, amid what Greece describes as an "astronomical" increase of Turkish violations of Greek airspace, raised the stakes in a festering disagreement over control of the Aegean.
"This is a game but it is a very dangerous one," George Papandreou, the Greek foreign minister who fostered a four-year-old rapprochement with successive Turkish governments, told the Financial Times.
For close to three decades the two Nato allies' fighter pilots have challenged each other's manoeuvres over the Aegean, largely because Turkey, like much of the international community, does not accept Greek definitions of its air space boundaries.
At odds with international practice, Greece sets these wider than its territorial waters. It also demands, contradicting international convention, that foreign military aircraft give Athens flight plans before flying into international airspace over the Aegean.
Ankara challenges Athens' stance both by routinely sending military aircraft into the contested airspace and by refusing to file flight plans for international airspace over the Aegean.
When Turkish warplanes enter the disputed zone, Greeks scramble their fighters and, although no shots are fired, try to squeeze them on to a flight path out of the area.
On a diplomatic level the dispute had been dormant, thanks to a rapprochement between the two countries aimed at resolving over time their differences over Cyprus and the Aegean. Greece helping Turkey join the EU has been an important part of that process. But Athens last month raised the issue of alleged Turkish airspace violations with the European Commission.
It said Turkey was acting against the EU's Copenhagen criteria for accession candidates, which call for maintaining good neighbourly relations. Turkish officials admit there has been a tripling of such flights between 2000 and 2002. But they also claim this is partly to do with increased security threats after the airborne terror attacks on the US of September 11 2001. They and Greek commentators suggest Athens may have domestic political reasons for bringing up the dispute now.
Greece's own statistics indicate that any "astronomical" increase in Turkish "violations" occurred in 2002 rather than in more recent months.
This supports a contention by some political analysts that the dispute reflects mounting pressure felt by the governing Greek Socialists. With an election due early next year, the opposition centre-right is consistently ahead in opinion polls.
So far the Greek consensus over maintaining better relations with Turkey has held firm. But Mr Papandreou, the most popular politician in Greece, cannot afford to see his prospects punctured by accusations from hardliners within his own party and the opposition that he is too "soft" on Turkey.
Alexander Lykourezos, a hardline nationalist parliamentarian of the opposition New Democracy, argues that Mr Papandreou's "smiling policy" has produced no benefits for Greece. "What has Turkey done in return?" he asks.
and Clinton and idiot Ramsey Clark, then NATO commander,
That would be Wesley Clark. He was the NATO commander. Ramsey Clark is the anti-American peace activist with ANSWER.
Sheee-it, those Euro-weenies would probably come a'cryin' to the US to come in and work as "peacekeepers".
It's a wonder they can even wipe their own butts. Oh, wait, they have those bidet thingies to do it for them, don't they? LOL
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