Turkey escalates for S-300: Sends alleged "harassment" of Turkish F-16 to NATO

Ankara insists on the false claims that Greece used the Russian S-300 system in Crete in order to "lock down" a Turkish F-16 and even intends to transfer these non-existent accusations to NATO.

According to the Anadolu Agency, the Ministry of Defense of the neighboring country is preparing to send images with the radar tracks, which "prove" the harassment of the fighter aircraft and the alleged "locking" by the S-300 system.

The Turkish agency notes that the images will be sent to the defense ministries of the alliance member states, as well as to the NATO secretary general.

The Turkish Minister of Defense, Hulusi Akar, also made a statement on the matter, who said: "It must be seen, understood and explained what our neighboring country has done, which is constantly trying to increase the tension. This blatant malice and recklessness is unacceptable."

It is recalled that Turkey claims that on August 23 the Russian S-300 system in Crete "locked on" to Turkish aircraft on a mission flight, at an altitude of 10.000 feet west of Rhodes. According to Ankara, this incident constitutes a "hostile act" according to the NATO statute.

At the same time, according to what the Turkish side maintains, Greek warplanes have violated Turkish airspace 256 times and harassed Turkish aircraft 158 ​​times. It also claims that Greek coast guard vessels have violated Turkish territorial waters 33 times.

kathimerini.gr