Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Another reason Turkey cannot be a member of EU

Eight Turkish planes violate Greek airspace and are chased off by Greek fighters

UPDATE - Perhaps this is a non-story. An Anonymous commenter points out:
The island of Samos is literally 3km off the coast of Turkey? Also that Greece claims territorial waters/airspace 19km around every Greek island? That means that Turkish planes are not to exit Turkey mainland to "comply" with Greece's territorial water demand. Also, if Greece were to have their way, most of the islands would have airspace rights that were LARGER than the sizes of the islands.

Link

http://sofiaecho.com/shimg/zx500y290_855681.jpg

Turkish fighter jets violated Greek air space on February 9 2010, Greek daily Kathimeriny reported on February 10.

Reportedly, this was the first such trespassing of sovereign air space at the Aegean Sea perpetrated by the Turks since the turn of the new year, the report said quoting Greek defence officials.

The violation, as on previous occasions, was conducted by four F-16s and four Phantoms F-4s which penetrated Greek airspace at the south-eastern island of Samos, a touching distance from mainland Turkey.

Kathimerini said that the Phantoms peeled off from the initial formation and conducted a low flight over the islet of Farmakonisi. Greek fighter jets chased off the Turkish planes, the report said.

The Greek embassy in Ankara lodged an official complaint.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Um, did you know that the island of Samos is literally 3km off the coast of Turkey? Also that Greece claims territorial waters/airspace 19km around every Greek island? That means that Turkish planes are not to exit Turkey mainland to "comply" with Greece's territorial water demand. Also, if Greece were to have their way, most of the islands would have airspace rights that were LARGER than the sizes of the islands.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegean_dispute

You consider this to be a reason why Turkey shouldn't be allowed in the EU?

Pastorius said...

No, I didn't know that. Thanks for letting me know. I'll post your information as an update.

ciccio said...

Then perhaps I can give you a better reason for Turkey not to be admitted into the EU. This week a publisher of a Kurdish paper was sent to jail for 21 years for insulting Turkishness as they call. In his paper he referred to the jailed leader Kurdish resistance as the leader of the Kurds, he compounded the insult by not referring to the Turkish soldiers killed in battles with the Kurds as martyrs. Last week a 15 year old Kurdish girl was jailed for 8 years for demonstrating.

Pastorius said...

Ciccio,
Turkey sucks. There's no doubt about it. A couple years ago both Mein Kampf and the Protocols of the Elders of Zion were on the Bestseller list at the same time.

Anonymous said...

Ciccio,

Do I agree with those decisions? No! As a Turk, Im completely against 301. I'm for giving Kurds more rights and allowing their rights as minorities. The republic has made significant progress towards that, but unfortunately just like every country, there is opposition that is stopping that from happening. The judicial system is overly nationalistic to the point of being fascist, and that causes issues like this.

However, the Kurdish separatists need to lay down their arms so that the fascist judicial system cannot have anything to complain about. Its about compromise.

Pastorius, maybe the Israeli nation should stop murdering civilians, perhaps that will stop the anti-semitic sentiment in Turkey. 10 years ago such sentiments did not exist, these countries were allies.

Mother Effingby said...

Good grief, ann o'nymous! Israelis do not KILL civilians unless they are lobbing missiles from the school house roof in Gaza over to the kindergarten in Sderot...no wait a minute....they don't even do that. Sorry. Never mind.

Total said...

Anonymous,

Speaking of murdering civilians, I do not recall Turkey ever apologizing or even ACKNOWLEDGING their deliberate ethnic cleansing and genocide of the Armenian people, which is very well documented. By your argument you are practically saying that the Turks are people of double standards and hypocrisy.

Anonymous said...

What gives Turkey the right to fly over Greek islands? Is it because
they are islands and not say a non-island borders e.g. like between Mexico and the USA? Certainly Mexico could not fly it jets over the American border. Is Turkey trying to redefine what an international border is, while Greece's borders or any country's, (whether non island borders or island borders), are already determined by International law and not by a Hitler type mentality of the Turkish authorities in general when it comes to Greek borders. The way Turkey is acting, bullish that it, it will never see the EU in one hundred of one hundred eons as many European leaders already proclaim not to mention a myriad of other wrongdoings by that country!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

When it comes to Turkey flying over
Greek islands no one in his right mind could claim that Turkey is not an international outlaw. It clearly is. Island borders or not they should be respected and Turkey, just as every other country must keep its flying jets at bay and not like a thief crossing its neighbors backyard
or simply reroute them and if not possible, that is too bad.

Anonymous said...

Fundamentaly no adjacent neighbor of Tyrkey really likes Turkey. I think that Ataturk's big mistake was that he did not change the name of Turkey into something totally different so that Turkey would have a better chance in getting into the EU and not so much disliked by the World. Just the name alone gives a bad taste
to the people (I am not refering here to politicians)of the World. This Turks need to realize, in their nationalistic fervor which the World clearly sees and gets shut off completely. The name Turk alone is a no no, not to get into so many other reasons e.g. Turkey acting as if it is ready to run the World. This a real joke.