Yes.The situation went critical since 1996,when we almost went to war for a 2 uninhabited rocky islets,called Imia.The Turks used that to raise dispute over about 600 greek islets initially,later dropped to about 150.They call them "gray zones",because according to them ,they are of dubous sovereignty (they discovered it 80 years after the delimitation of the borders).Funny is that there loads of foreign and even Turkish maps in internet showing the islands as greek,but that's what you have to put up with...The EU Parliament at the time voted a resolution:
http://www.hri.org/MFA/foreign/bilateral/europ.htm
But politically,the interests are too high,so apart wishes ,there were no political conseguences for Turkey.There is a whole array of issues with Turkey,personally i would have expected a bit more solidarity from the EU on that,instead of just opening its doors to someone who has land claims on a EU member,but world isn't moved by ethics.So,yes,it still goes on today,interceptions are an almost daily event in the Aegean,forward greek bases have 3 minute readiness aircrafts in daily basis and in periods of "high traffic" a pair of aircrafts is waiting with the pilots inside the cockpit.
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I guess then you could say "Fortunately" as well...
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Yes,but it is a shame to have men killed in peace time.Here is a list of "air victories" between Greeks and Turks and as you can see they go back a long time.EPA or MAH are Greek.THK is turkish.THN is turkish navy.CGN is Greek Cypriot National Guard.
http://www.acig.org/artman/publish/article_299.shtml
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Can't get the file as that rapidshare is playing up. Does it like Firefox or not?
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I use Firefox and works for me.First you must click on "Free".Then you must wait for the countdown to end ,insert a 3 digit code (that shows you) for verification and then you should be able to dl.
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Anyway, do these incidents still happen today? Do any other nations get 'caught up' in it?
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Yes,they do.The other nations as shown above limit themselves to "wishes",because Turkey is a vast country where many EU countries have factories for cheap manufactoring costs and so nobody wants to piss Turkey politically.
In real terms of being caught up in the middle,i know of 2 incidents.
1)An Israeli C-130 was partecipating in landing practice to Rhodes airport and was intercepted by mistake by the turkish aircrafts ,because they thought it was Greek.For this there is the news in the internet too.
2)A French Mirage2000 squadron was in the central Aegean as part of exchange of squadrons and got attacked by turkish aircrafts that thought they were greek Mirage2000.This was written in greek specialized press and the French pilots were stunned to having being part of such unexpected experience.
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what the British and US stance on it would be seeing as the Turks let us use thier bases for The WAr on Terroism.
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The US and British stance is pro-turkish,exactly because Turkey is strategically important for USA's policy in the ME and because Turkey is Israel's best friend in the region.
Basically,Turkey has a syndrome of the post WWI Germany.She feels "suffucated" in the Aegean and since 1974 has decided to start aggressive policy.Unlike Cyprus,we are not unarmed (the contrary),so instead of pursuing their goals militarily,they try to take operational control over the eastern half of the Aegean.In 1974 they issued arbitrarily NOTAM 714 (Notice to Airmen) declaring the east half of the Aegean part of the Istanbul FIR (Flight Information Region).Practically any aircraft entering that space,should contact Turkey for instructions and permission.Greece ,that which was the legal operator of that area (Athens FIR),issued a NOTAM declaring that space as hazardous.The result was that in 1981 Turkey revoked her NOTAM ,because it was hurting her tourism.
This is till today the real FIR regions of Europe and as you can see,the Greek one covers all the Aegean up to the Greek-Turkish borders.Till today,the Turks insist that they can enter Athens FIR without giving flight plans when flying in international airspace within the Athens FIR.Practically civillian flights must dodge turkish formations.So each time they enter,greek aircrafts take off,identify them and engage them in dogfight if necessary.
The Turks didn't abbandon their dreams though.Next step was to claim SAR (Search and Rescue) missions for the eastern half of the Aegean (always in the policy of "if you can't own it,at least take operational control over it").This is the map that the Turks (in their ministry's and army's site) declare unilateraly as their SAR limits (it is the same limits as their NOTAM 714).A bit more and they will arrive to claim the air over Athens:
The REAL limits,for air SAR coincides with FIR limits and for maritime incidents the same too.These are the official SAR zones by IMO (nternational Maritime organization):
http://www.imo.org/includes/blastDat...d%3D9046/1.pdf
You can use google earth to see the coordinates.Greek SAR zone is equal to FIR zone ,despite what the Turks say.
And these are the map zones as pubblished recently in a turkish magazine with the 150 greek islets they claim as "disputed",some of which are even inhabited.
Then we also haven't extended our territorial waters to 12nm as have done all other countries according to Montego Bay treaty for the Law of the Sea,because the Turks say they will get even more "suffucated" and if we do,they will attack us (casus belli).Funny is that Turkey hasn't signed the Treaty ,but has extended her own waters to 12nm whatsoever towards the North and south.The Treaty provides that if someone has objections ,can go to the International Court of hague for juridical solution if the 2 parts can't agree on a private mediator.Unfortunately,Turkey refuses to recognize the decisions of the international court of Hague as binding,so we can't go there either.The EU AFTER letting Turkey as candidate member,has asked to "solve peacefully disputes in respect of the UN charter and if necessary to bring them to Hague",but i am afraid it will as always remain a trash paper lost under the piles of money.
Another dispute is the width of greek airspace.Greece had set it to 6 + 4 for police duties in 1932 and Turkey in the 50s had accepted it in the ICAO (International Civil Air Organization) agreements ,manuals,maps etc.In 1974 they disputed it.Now,for me,we could in fact be wrong in this ,since the international rule is to have equal airspace to waters,that are currently 6nm.The greek position that Turkey had recognized untill then 10nm doesn't seem right to me.Anyway,if we were to extend our waters to 12nm ,like the international law says,we would have airspace of 12nm,so at the end we 're not blattantly evil.
Another yet is the continental shelf (the Aegean has oil).There is no agreement on that either.Turkey says that the eastern half of the continental sheld should be hers ,because the greek islands shouldn't have their own continental shelf (contrary to what international law says).Again we can't go to hague ,because Turkey doesn't recognize its authority as binding.
So,yes,this is still going on and will continue to go on,untill we go to Hague and end this peacefully or untill the next crisis that won't be avoided at the last minute like in 1996.
Another reason why Eu and USA don't sweat much about it,is because we are their best weapons customers.Greece would have been a much richer country if it wasn't investing 4-5% of the budget on defence.Same for Turkey.