The Turkish president, true to the narrative of the last few weeks, is trying to portray Greece as a threat and a potential aggressor, as if Greek fighter jets were flying over Turkish territory.
The possibility of acquiring new F-16 fighters, but also the upgrading of the fleet of aircraft that the TuAF already has in its arsenal after the Menendez amendment, is getting more and more distant. With the head of the congressional foreign relations committee directly linking the Viper sale to Turkey with Ankara’s illegal and provocative actions over the Aegean. And to ask for guarantees that the Turkish fighters will not proceed with overflights over Greek islands in order to pave the way for the reinforcement of the neighbors. Turkey’s reaction was immediate and expected. With Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu effectively rejecting Menendez’s terms and Tayyip Erdoğan himself launching a fierce attack on the USA, emphasizing that “we know very well who has unleashed Greece against us after 100 years”. The Turkish president, true to the narrative of the last few weeks, is trying to portray Greece as a threat and a potential aggressor, as Greek fighter jets fly over Turkish territory, Athens questions Ankara’s sovereignty over its islands and shows expansive maps. In order to set the scene for conflict and convince that any action he takes will be a defensive action.
Except that in the “fairy tale” of Tayyip Erdogan, the “dragon” is absent, or rather the real “dragon” is across the street. And it is none other than the Hellenic Air Force which, in the face of the lionization and the “magic tricks” of the neighbors with the “safe” flights and overflights of the unmanned ones when necessary, sends the message that in any scenario of conflict in the air it has a clear advantage which in fact, it will also judge the result. Since air superiority is a necessary condition for the success of any strategic plan.
“The Turks know. They have measured their strength against us in all scenarios. And he found that the possibility of a crash is the most likely” state aviation sources very categorically. In all the cases that they wanted to check the operational capabilities of the HAF even recently when they sent larger Formations over the Aegean they left “locked” with the indication “kill” ringing even when they had left the Greek Airspace as the information states.
The mandates received by the Turkish staff are clear and “black” with the prospect that the coming years will become nightmarish. Since without even Viper and Rafale in the “quiver” of the HAF, the battles over the Aegean are lost for the neighbors, it remains to be seen what will happen when the Greek “hawks” are equipped with the game changer fighters.
The fact that the issue of acquiring new Viper jets has been reduced by the neighbors to a major issue with Turkish missions going back and forth to Washington, so far to no avail, also demonstrates the truth of the neighbors’ weakness in the air. And this panic is clearly already being expressed in threats and blackmail which are expected to culminate. Just as serious is the possibility that the challenges in the air will escalate even further. But “so-so” as they say with meaning and especially with the inexpensive in every respect unmanned.
