Ankara’s reaction was caused by the statements of the Minister of Health, Adonis Georgiadis on the occasion of his declaration that “With the F-35s you can suddenly spend the night in Ankara.”
In particular, a retired Turkish lieutenant general spoke of a second scandalous statement from Greece, which shows your fear of the neighboring country while emphasizing that “the Turkish air force is incomparably more advanced than Greece.”
“What will you bring one night to Greece?”
Adonis Georgiadis speaking at the Open, and referring to Ankara’s challenges, said that “By buying F-35s we become stronger, by buying frigates we become stronger. By buying the F16 Viper, by making defense alliances with America, France, we are becoming tougher. We do not become tougher because of a tweet, but when the adversary realizes that we are no longer in his hands. I hear these “one night suddenly” and they make me laugh. With the F-35 we can suddenly spend the night in Turkey. Did you see what happened in Yemen? If you have F-35s that do not pick up radar, one night suddenly you can be in Ankara and make them land madiam. I am not saying that we will do something like that, because we do not want to do something like that, but when Erdogan says that, I laugh. What will you bring to Greece one night? With the shoes that you have? As everyone knows Turkey is zero in aviation, for five years Mitsotakis.”
Retired Turkish Lieutenant General Erdoğan Karakuş, speaking to Turkish Hurriyet, attributed the aforementioned statements Greece’s fear of Turkey and the concern caused by the fact that the Turkish defense industry is many times larger than that of Greece.
“Our defense industry is much bigger than Greece”
Erdoğan Karakuş stated that the Greek minister’s comments are baseless and that The Turkish air force is incomparably more advanced than Greece.
“Our defense industry is much larger than Greece’s,” Karakuş said, adding that Turkey is the world’s leading producer of UAVs and UCAVs and has made significant progress in air defense systems, while Greece is still in its infancy in this area.”
“They are afraid of Türkiye”
Then, stating that Greece’s aim is to try to halt the progress of the Turkish defense industry, Karakuş said: “The reason for this statement is the fear they feel about the fact that Turkey could attack Greece at any time. They live in fear of Turkey. In such cases, they know that the Turkish Air Force will respond in kind.”
“We have the Kaan in our hands against the F-35”
Stating that Greece cannot attack Turkey easily, he said: “We have the Kaan in our hands against the F-35s. We are trying to increase the first 20 Kaans by 2028. Kaan will be a deterrent against the F-35. Having Kaan will mean that if you try to attack Ankara, we will shoot Athens invisibly.”