posted on Mar, 16 2009 @ 11:53 PM
Nothing to do with the Middle East.
As far as the Americans, British, Dutch are concerned, this is just a normal NATO exercise.
As far as the Turks are concerned, they will try and push the limits of the Greek Military during these exercises as they are taking place in the
Aegean Sea, majority of which is under Greek control as most inhabited islands are inhabited by Greeks and said islands were liberated during war of
independence or given back to Greece by third parties, ie Italy, under treaty.
So in that regard it is not a normal NATO training exercise, but it is not related to the Middle East. If it were a normal exercise, solely for the
purpose of joint NATO training, then the Hellenic Navy would be taking part.
But Turkey has other ideas.
Turkey has stated that basically it WILL push the envelope as far as they can regarding maritime borders in the Aegean during this exercise, and the
Greek government has responded by warning Turkey.
Since December Turkey has increased it's violations of Greek airspace and the Athens Flight Information Region(FIR). They have increased armed over
flights of inhabited islands, some over flights occurring as low as 100ft. There have been several instances were locals even fishermen on their boats
have captured footage of Turkish jets inside Greek airspace. Tension has risen to new levels. The Turks have again tried to search for oil in Greek
waters, however a Greek patrol boat turned a Turkish frigate and the Norwegian exploration vessel away. The Norwegians later apologised for their
mistake.
For those who are unaware, Turkey disputes Greek sovereignty in the Aegean Sea. This is despite Turkey many decades ago putting it's signature to
treaties and such declaring which islands belong to who. And may I add, that there are at least two islands which were supposed to be handed to Greece
which have not been - Yet the Greek government is making no move to acquire those islands either by force or by diplomatic legal avenues. What's done
is done. However Turkey sees thing's differently.
To give you an idea..imagine Greece disputing Turkish sovereignty half way to Ankara, and sending armed and unarmed fighter jets and recon planes to
violate the Turkish airspace in that area, and then on top of that, creating things called Grey Zones, which only it recognises and even speaks of.
Then imagine Greece sent in drilling teams to search for oil in the said areas.
Would Turkey accept this? Would NATO and the EU accept it?
But the unfortunate thing is, is that Turkey is in a strategic place on the map. So for as long as America has no alternative air base besides
Incirlik, they will continue turning a blind eye to the outright aggression of one NATO member(TURKEY) to another NATO member(GREECE).
I don't know why you guys are expecting this to be in your local news, unless you live in Turkey or Greece, which this is on the news in both.