BEIRUT, LEBANON (11:20 P.M.) – Greece condemned on Sunday, what it considered the harassment of a helicopter carrying the Greek Minister of Defense and its army commander by Turkish warplanes in the Aegean Sea.
According to the Greek Ministry of Defense the chopper was traveling to a small island in the Aegean Sea when the Turkish warplanes approached their helicopter.
Greek Defense Ministry sources said that the incident occurred after Greek fighters intercepted Turkish warplanes in familiar but dangerous exercises by two NATO allies.
Defense Minister Nikos Panayotopoulos and the Army Chief of Staff, General Constantinos Florus, were traveling in a helicopter that took off from a small island after they visited bases near the border with Turkey.
The Greek “Anna News Agency” reported that two Turkish planes flew over the island at an altitude of 3,500 feet (1000 meters) after the helicopter took off, then they flew over a second Greek island at a height of only 1,700 feet.
The Greek Foreign Ministry strongly condemned the harassment and urged Turkey to respect the established rules “like other countries in the region instead of violating them systematically”.
A military source said that Greek jets intercepted Turkish warplanes that violated the country’s airspace prior to the accident.
It is worth noting that a Greek military pilot was killed in April 2018, when his plane crashed after a similar interception.
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