Greece is desperate and disturbed by the strengthening of Turkey, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in an interview on the state-run TRT channel.
He talked about Greece's inexplicable 'challenges' lately and about illegal steps and claims.
"It is not possible to explain and accept Greece's attitude towards Turkey in the last period. This attitude and baseless propaganda of Greece is against good neighborly and alliance relations. Greece's main discomfort is Turkey's rising profile regionally and globally. This bothers Greece a lot. Desperate in the face of our responses to its illegal steps, the Greek side is resorting to absurd claims," he said while once again blaming Athens for the air and sea violations and that it is responsible for the escalation of tension.
“First, there is no basis on which Greece can base its allegations of air violations. What is causing the violations of our airspace by Greece, the harassment of our planes, the harassment of our fishermen? They increase the intensity. Our air force and coast guard, of course, do not and will not let these hostile actions go unanswered."
Recep Tayyip Erdogan argued that the equipment of the islands threatens the coasts of Turkey and repeated that the Tayfun missile is aimed at defending his country and if Greece is capable, let it acquire such a weapon.
"It continues to arm the islands, which are very close to our coasts and large settlements, in violation of international agreements. Of course, then they panic when we say 'Tayfun'. Why are you panicking, bro? So we won't make our own preparations? We made Tayfun. Okay. At the moment it has a range of 560 km. But I also say to our defense industry, '560 km is not enough. You will reach it at 1000 km. Do it too. Do it too, have it too. This is the step we took. Why does this bother them? It is not possible to sit idly by in the face of actions aimed at the security of our country. We will continue to respond both legally and in the field," he said.
The Turkish president also boasted about the unmanned weapons it is developing, which makes Turkey's armed forces even more powerful.
“And our İHAs, our SİHAs, our Akıncıs and above all…, our Kızılelma (Red Apple). These are important. First Allah, here comes the Gökbey (general purpose helicopter). With all this, our armed forces will become much stronger."