Turkey launches new military drills as tensions mount

Aerial intrusion was a ‘provocative and antially’ stance — Greece

Turkey yesterday launched new military drills in the eastern Mediterranean and Greece accused Turkish jets of an incursion as tensions mount in a maritime standoff between the Nato members.

The confrontation has reignited a longstanding rivalry over disputed maritime rights and gas resources between Greece and Turkey and they have begun staging competing naval drills.

In a message on Navtex, the international maritime navigational system, Turkey said it would carry out “gunnary exercises” until September 11 in a zone off the southern Turkish town of Anamur, north of the island of Cyprus.

Ankara had already announced on Thursday that military exercises would take place on Tuesday and Wednesday in a zone further east.

In another sign of the volatility, Greece’s national defence agency, HNDS, said Turkish fighter planes had on Friday entered the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR), the area where Greek authorities are responsible for air traffic.

The incursion happened while four Greek F-16 fighter aircraft were escorting a US strategic B-52 bomber plane as part of the “Allied Sky” mission, in which six US bombers are flying over all 30 Nato nations in Europe and North America in a single day to display the Alliance’s solidarity. The Turkish aerial intrusion was a “provocative and anti-ally” stance, and Greek fighters chased away the Turkish planes, the HNDS said.

The crisis has split members of the NATO alliance and in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday, alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg stressed the need for “dialogue and de-escalation”.

Greece and Turkey were already divided on significant issues including migration and Byzantine heritage in Istanbul and tensions over the island of Cyprus. But the discovery of hydrocarbon reserves in the eastern Mediterranean has further strained relations, with Turkey rejecting calls from the EU and Athens to immediately stop energy exploration in disputed waters.