Under the title: "Ankara will not leave Greece", a publication in the online version of the Turkish pro-government newspaper Sabah refers to the actions that Turkey is going to take for the alleged "harassment" of a Turkish fighter jet from the Greek S-300 air defence system.
"Turkey will ask the Athens government to account for the S-300 attack. Greek harassment will be included in the NATO agenda. The files and records from the radars will be sent to the UN, the NATO General Secretariat and the ministries of defence of the member countries of the alliance," writes Sabah, arguing that Ankara's goal is to reveal to the US and the allied countries: "Greece's illegal actions" with it’s supposed active use of the S-300 system against Turkish fighter jets “carrying out NATO missions in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean."
The publication presents the latest provocative statements made by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who accused Greece of hostile actions that question the cohesion of NATO, asking the Alliance: "not to be silent on this illegality".
The newspaper reports that all the evidence, which - according to Ankara's claims - testifies to the incident of the Turkish fighter jet being locked on by the S-300 air defence system that Greece has, will be submitted to both the General Secretariat of NATO, as well as to the Ministries of Defence of the member countries of the Alliance.
According to Turkish claims, on August 23, F-16 fighter jets carrying out mission flights in the international airspace of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean were harassed by the Russian-made S-300 air defence system that Greece has and is installed in Crete.
The Turks claim that the S-300 system’s target tracking and missile guidance radar "locked on" a Turkish F-16, which was on a mission flight at an altitude of 10,000 feet west of Rhodes.
"Greece, on the other hand, denied the incident, which is characterised as a "hostile act" in NATO's rules of engagement, " the publication concluded.
Greece categorically denies the Turkish claims, with military sources noting that the S-300s were never activated on the day and time reported by Turkish media, also noting that no NATO exercise was taking place in the specific period of time in the region.
Greek analysts estimate that the Turkish fake news aims to remind the US and NATO allies that Greece also has a Russian air defence system, which it uses freely, unlike Turkey, which has been sanctioned for its acquisition of the S-400.
READ MORE: Erdoğan’s delusions: “Greece is harassing us and is a pawn of foreign powers.”
