Turkey ceases violation over Greek airspace after downing Russian Jet Nov, 29 2015 Author: newsroom

 Turkey ceases violation over Greek airspace after downing Russian Jet 

Nov, 29 2015 Author: newsroom

Turkish fighter jets violating Greek air space over the Aegean were a daily occurence until the downing of the Russian Su-24 jet by Turkey on November 24. Now, a diplomatic source in Athens, cited by RIA Novosti, states that these suddenly stopped.

The last dogfights in Greek airspace regarding Turkish breach of Greek airspace was documented on November 25 when six jets, two with weapons, entered the neighbor’s aerial domain.

Before that, intrusions in Greek airspace were a constant headache with 2,244 violations noted in 2014 alone. Though Greece and Turkey are NATO partnersthe two nations continue to have territorial disputes.

In 2015, there were 1,233 violations from January to October, and there were 50 documented breaches in November before the incident with the Russian bomber sparked a crisis in Turkish and Russian relations.

The matter of Turkish intrusions has been raised repeatedly at NATO meetings. The reaction of NATO members has been to sit on the fence leaving Greece to fend for itself.

Greece expressed its solidarity with Russia during the incident where the Russian bomber was shot down with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias expressing his solidarity in a phone conversation with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov.

Following the destruction of the warplane “there was zero activity of Turkish aviation in Greek FIR in the Aegean Sea, and it is understandable why.”