Ankara to apply to NATO over Greece’s defence measures

Türkiye intends to apply to NATO because of the measures taken by the Greek air defence against Turkish aircraft during combat patrols.

The Russian-made S-300 installations located on the island of Crete intercepted Turkish F-16 combat jets at an altitude of three kilometres, Yeni Safak newspaper reports, citing a senior source in the security service. However, the aircraft "completed the task and safely returned to their bases".

“The prosecution will be discussed in meetings with both the United States and NATO,” the newspaper quotes a senior official in the country’s security service as saying.

The newspaper also notes that the incident “exposes the hypocrisy of the United States and Europe”, which imposed sanctions against Türkiye for the purchase of Russian S-400 air defence systems but do not react in any way to the use of Greek S-300s.

“We are being sanctioned for the S-400, but Greece is actively using the S-300. When we put this issue on the agenda, we were told that the S-300 ‘is not used, it is stored in hangars, it is used only in exercises’. But it turned out that this was not true. While we are being told that we cannot use Russian-made weapons, Greece is pursuing the planes of a NATO member country with a Russian-made system,” the military source said.