At a time when all eyes are on Ukraine and Russia, the Turks continue to provoke Greece with new violations of the country's airspace.
Specifically, on Thursday morning at 10:02 local time, a pair of Turkish F-16 aircraft flew over Anthropofagi and Makronisi islands at 20,000 feet.
At 10:03 a second pair of Turkish F-16 aircraft flew over the same islands, at 11,000 feet.
In 2018, Turkey dispatched 1,167 fighters, which committed at least 913 infringements of air traffic rules and 2 766 violations of Greece's national airspace, engaging in 72 ‘dogfights’.
In 2019 and the subsequent years, this problem has only become more acute.
Since 1987, Turkish fighters have flown around 60,000 sorties, encroaching on Aegean airspace or committing other infringements.
However, the EU has never seen fit to censure these acts of aggression by Ankara and the matter has never been raised during talks regarding the various forms of funding for Turkey.
Meanwhile, Ukraine views the presence of Russian warships near its borders in the Black Sea as a threat and will ask Turkey to consider shutting two waterways to Russian vessels if Moscow invades, Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasyl Bodnar said on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, six Russian warships and a submarine transited the Dardanelles and Bosporus to the Black Sea for what Moscow called naval drills near Ukraine waters.
Asked about the presence of Russian warships near Ukrainian borders, Bodnar told Reuters in an interview that the vessels posed "a great danger" for Kyiv, adding the Russian naval concentration in the Black Sea was "overwhelming."
"We believe that, in case of a wide military invasion or the starting of military activities against Ukraine – when the war becomes not only de facto but de jure – we will ask the Turkish government to consider the possibility of closing the Black Sea straits for the aggressor state," he said.
Under the 1936 Montreux Convention, NATO member Turkey has control over the Bosporus and Dardanelles straits, linking the Mediterranean and Black seas.
The pact gives Ankara the power to regulate the transit of naval warships and to close the straits to foreign warships during wartime and when it is threatened.
"We have proposed a number of initiatives, starting from methods of consultation between our sides, up until creating a common mechanism of reaction to the threats to security in our region," Bodnar said, adding Ukraine still believed a diplomatic solution was possible.
Speaking to reporters on his way back from Senegal on Wednesday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Turkey cooperates with both Russia and Ukraine and will not halt relations or plan to impose sanctions against Moscow.
“We have political, military and economic relations with Russia. Same with Ukraine. We cannot give this up if you ask me because our country has high interests in this regard,” Erdoğan said.
“Some say the conflict will boost the costs of natural gas while others discuss turning off the valves.
"We need to take our steps with this sensitivity in mind,” he said, adding that Turkish officials are currently in contact with Russian counterparts to arrange a meeting.
“We will continue phone diplomacy and I hope we achieve favorable results,” Erdoğan said.
The president noted that he highlighted Turkey's stance regarding Ukraine to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a recent phone call.
He that Turkey does not accept any actions violating the Minsk agreements.
"I told him that we are ready to undertake the responsibility to ensure that the crisis is solved through diplomacy and dialogue," he said, adding that the ongoing tensions pose a threat to security in the Black Sea.
"Our hope is for our Black Sea neighbors Russia and Ukraine to immediately return to the negotiation table," he added.
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