Frag Out! Magazine
Issue link: https://fragout.uberflip.com/i/642978
For many years, the main enemy of Turkey has been… an NATO ally – Greece. The encounters with Greece, related to a rivalry for influences at the Aegean See, often lead to the contacts of the military aircraft – from time to time such close encounters end with the human and equipment losses. In the case of the Turkish Air Forces (Türk Hava Kuvvetleri) the first "success" of these contacts was achieved on 13th November 2000 when the first Greek F-16C fighter was shot down. The subsequent fights made losses for both sides – the last incident happened in 2006. At that time the F-16 fighters, Greek and Turkish, clashed in the air. As a consequence of this, Greek pilot lost his life, and a Turkish had to eject. Later on, he was rescued by a rescue helicopter crew. An outbreak of the Syrian Civil War and a more or less intensive involvement of the Western countries in this conflict resulted in an increasing number of the air incidents between the Turks and the Syrians, and later also with the Russians. The critical moment which led to an escalation on the Ankara side, was shooting AVIATION