Foreign Ministry: It Is Out Of Question For Turkish Military Planes To Harass Civilian Planes In Aegean

ANKARA - Ankara stated on Wednesday that it was out of question for Turkish military planes to harass civilian planes in the Aegean.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Huseyin Dirioz told a weekly press briefing that tension should not be escalated and Turkey was ready to take up the issue in bilateral level with Greece.
Dirioz said that claims that ''Turkish military planes violated Greek air space over the Aegean Sea and the FIR and flew over Greek islands'' had been increased and reiterated recently.
Those claims indicated ''the effort of Greece to show its practices against international law as rightful,'' Dirioz noted.
Dirioz stated that the mentioned violation claims and figures alleged accordingly did not reflect the facts.
It was out of question for Turkish military planes to harass civilian planes, Dirioz emphasized.
Dirioz recalled that Turkey did not accept Greece's ten miles of national air space practice although territorial waters of Turkey and Greece was 6 miles in the Aegean Sea.
None of the countries respected ''the Greek practice which was unique in the world,'' Dirioz pointed out.
Dirioz stated that the ''FIR violation'' claim which did not have any place in international law did not have a valid and acceptable base.
When a claim was put forth regarding violation of Greek air space in real sense except the above mentioned situations, Turkish authorities seriously investigated that claim, Dirioz said.
Dirioz drew the attention that Turkey made military flights in international air space over the Aegean Sea by opening flight codes named as IFF and mostly disarmed.
Turkey unilaterally informed the Greek authorities via NATO one day before all military flights to be performed over the Aegean Sea since December 2001 as an indicator of good will, Dirioz stated.
Stating that this implementation, which is named as ''Daily Flight Schedule'' (DFS) still continued, Dirioz said, ''it was impossible for Greece, which shows extreme sensitivity over the issues on air space, could not start a similar implementation.''
Dirioz said there was an important difference between the number of military flights made by Turkey and Greece in the Aegean, stating that Turkish war planes performed 6623 flights on the Aegean in 2002, and that number of Greek military flights reached 30,000.
Dirioz said Turkey's military flights in the Aegean constituted three percent of its total military flights in a year, stating that flights of Greece constituted 80 percent of its total flights.
Dirioz said Greek military planes used and violated two civilian air corridors (R-1 and G-18) in the Aegean some of which pass from Turkish national air space without getting permission from Turkish authorities.
Pointing out that the issue should not be escalated and that it should not be outside bilateral level, Dirioz said Turkey would continue to exert efforts to find a lasting solution for all the problems with Greece stemming from the Aegean Sea.
Dirioz said Turkey was ready to discuss issues, pertaining to its airspace, with Greece in bilateral level.
(BRC-AY-AÖ) 25.06.2003