ATHENS – Mocking Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s former boast about invading Greece and Turkish military prowess, Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis provoked tensions, saying if Greece could strike “suddenly one night.”

That threw Erdogan’s own words back in his face, Georgiadis appearing on Greek TV to suggest it could happen if Greece gets American-made F-35 fighter jets denied to Turkey for acquiring Russian S-400 missile defense systems.

The comments came during a detente with Turkey and upset Turkish media, Georgiadis known as a firebrand who shoots from the hip and as he also taunted Turkey’s ability to strike Greece in a conflict.

Georgiadis noted how Greece has built up its arsenal with French Rafale fighter jets, plans to get more F16s – as will Turkey – and a mutual defense alliance with France and renewing a military cooperation deal with the United States.

“With F-35s, we can go to Turkey one night. One night, you will suddenly find them in Ankara,” he said, referencing Erdogan’s earlier threats, although neither country has the more advanced jets, with Greece closer to getting them than Turkey.

https://www.turkishminute.com/2024/07/22/our-f-35s-may-come-sudden-one-night-to-ankara-greek-minister/

Georgiadis shrugged off Erdogan’s earlier threats as unrealistic and said Turkey’s Air Force – Erdogan purged his country’s military after a failed 2016 coup attempt – couldn’t match that of Greece, whose pilots are among the best in NATO.

“With what will you come to Greece one night? With the junk you have? Everyone knows Turkey is zero in aviation,” he added, slinging barbs at Turkey, a fellow NATO ally that had previously sent F-16s into Greek airspace repeatedly.

He spoke just after both countries marked the 50th anniversary of Turkey’s invasions of Cyprus which seized the still-occupied northern third of the island where the Greek-Cypriot government is a member of the European Union.

Turkey has in recent days also sent warships near Greek territorial waters between the islands of Kassos and Karpathos, in the southeastern Aegean, under the pretext that the Turkish continental shelf had been violated, said Kathimerini.

The report said that Turkey, which doesn’t recognize the island’s seas sovereignty, was upset over an Italian research vessel researching the sea for the future deployment of underwater sea cables for the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI), the electricity connection between Crete and Cyprus.