ISTANBUL: Turkey on Sunday alleged fellow NATO member Greece has used a Russian-made air defense system to harass Turkish jets on a reconnaissance mission, calling it a “hostile action.”
The incident took place on August 23 when Greece’s S-300 missile system deployed on the island of Crete put a lock on Turkish F-16 jets flying at 10,000 feet west of Rhodes, Turkish defense ministry sources said.
That was “incompatible with the spirit of (NATO) alliance” and amounted to “hostile acts” under the NATO rules of engagement, the sources added.
“Despite this hostile action, (Turkish) jets completed their planned missions and returned to their base safely.”
Turkey has in recent months complained of what it calls provocative actions by Greece, saying such moves undermine peace efforts.
The two uneasy NATO neighbors have long-standing sea and air boundary disputes which lead to near-daily air force patrols and interception missions mostly around Greek islands near Turkey’s coastline.
Athens accuses Ankara of overflying Greek islands.
Turkey says Greece is stationing troops on islands in the Aegean Sea in violation of peace treaties signed after World Wars I and II.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cut off dialogue with Greece after charging that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis lobbied against US arms sales to his country.
Washington has sanctioned Ankara for taking delivery of an advanced Russian missile defense system in 2019.
The purchase saw the United States drop Turkey from the F-35 joint strike fighter program.
But Joe Biden’s administration has signalled it may be willing to move past the dispute and there have been talks about F-16 purchases.
Turkish defense ministry sources said Greece also had purchased the Russian-made air defense system and accused Western countries, without naming them, of pursuing two-sided policies.
Athens is also eying US weaponry in an attempt to bolster its airforce amid tensions with Ankara.
In June, Greece formalized a request for US-made F-35 fighter jets.
Turkey accuses Greece of ‘hostile action’ against jets
https://arab.news/jgry9
Turkey accuses Greece of ‘hostile action’ against jets
- Greece’s S-300 missile system deployed on the island of Crete put a lock on Turkish F-16 jets flying at 10,000 feet west of Rhodes
- The two uneasy NATO neighbors have long-standing sea and air boundary disputes
North Korean POWs in Ukraine seeking ‘new life’ in South
- North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies
SEOUL: Two North Korean prisoners of war held by Ukraine have said they hope to start a “new life” in South Korea, according to a letter seen by AFP on Wednesday.
Previous reports have indicated that the two men, held captive by Kyiv since January after sustaining injuries on the battlefield, were seeking to defect to the South.
But the letter represents the first time the two of them have said so in their own words.
“Thanks to the support of the South Korean people, new dreams and aspirations have begun to take root,” the two soldiers wrote in a letter dated late October to a Seoul-based rights group which shared it with AFP this week.
North Korea has sent thousands of troops to support Russia’s nearly four-year invasion of Ukraine, according to South Korean and Western intelligence agencies.
At least 600 have died and thousands more have sustained injuries, according to South Korean estimates.
Analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology and food and energy supplies from Russia in return.
North Korean soldiers are instructed to kill themselves rather than be taken prisoner, according to South Korea’s intelligence service.
In the letter, the two prisoners thanked those working on their behalf “for encouraging us and seeing this situation not as a tragedy but as the beginning of a new life.”
“We firmly believe that we are never alone, and we think of those in South Korea as our own parents and siblings and have decided to go into their embrace,” they wrote.
The letter is signed by the two soldiers, whose names AFP has been asked to withhold to protect their safety.
- ‘Death sentence’ -
Under South Korea’s constitution, all Koreans — including those in the North — are considered citizens, and Seoul has said this applies to any troops captured in Ukraine.
The letter was delivered during an interview for a documentary film coordinated by the Gyeore-eol Nation United (GNU) rights group, which works to help North Korean defectors.
That interview took place at an undisclosed facility in Kyiv where the two POWs are being held after they were captured.
During the interview, the pair also pleaded to be sent to the South, according to GNU chief Jang Se-yul, himself a North Korean defector who fled the isolated country in the 2000s.
The video has not yet been made public but is expected to be released next month, Jang said.
Yu Yong-weon, a lawmaker who met with the prisoners during a visit to Ukraine in February, said the prisoners had described witnessing wounded comrades kill themselves with grenades.
Sending the soldiers back to the North would constitute “a death sentence,” Yu said.
South Korea’s foreign ministry has urged Ukraine not to “forcibly repatriate North Korean prisoners of war against their will” and has asked that their desire to go to the South be respected.
