Turkey has announced that it will boycott the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s “Tiger Meet” military exercise (NATO).
The Turkish Air Force indicated it would not send F-16 fighter jets to NATO’s annual joint exercise “Tiger meet” on April 30, according to Turkish media. The “Tiger Reunion” exercise this year will take place from May 9 to 22 at Greece’s Araxos airbase.
Turkey is boycotting the event due to disagreements with Greece, the host country. The wording used in technical documents relating to this exercise, according to the Turkish side, is in violation of international law. Following a request from the Turkish Air Force, Greece has reportedly refused to modify the aforementioned documents.
“Despite Turkey’s reconciliation efforts,… Greece did not conduct the exercise with the goal of friendship and collaboration, and instead utilised it as a measure against the Turkish side’s interests and interests,” a source with ties to Turkish security told Military Cognizance.
In reaction to Turkey’s complaints, some media said that Greece had decided to exclude Turkey from the exercise due to suspicions that Turkish aeroplanes had been violating Greek airspace on a daily basis.
The Greek Foreign Ministry summoned the Turkish ambassador on Thursday to express its displeasure over “unprecedented violations of Greek airspace by Turkish surveillance planes.”
“These measures generate an atmosphere of great strain in ties between the two nations,” the Greek foreign ministry said, “which goes against the efforts that have been taken to alleviate the situation.” The tensions between Ankara and Athens are escalating as a result of these back-and-forth charges. Last year, Athens had to notify the military because Turkey was undertaking geological exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean, which Greece claims as its continental shelf.
