A campaign entitled “No jets for Turkey” of the Greek diaspora in the USA is making Turkey irate after it succeeded in putting a “brake” on its effort to upgrade the F-16s or sell new fighters from Washington.
The Greek-American lobby, which maintains strong ties with Congress, is working quietly and efficiently, something that has alarmed Ankara in its plans to upgrade the power of its Air Force.
The Turkish media are covering the actions of the diaspora and the Greek-American lobby, which succeeded in suspending the upgrade of the F-16 or the sale of new fighters to Turkey by passing an amendment in the American House.
An indication of this concern was on display on CNN Turk news when an anchor reported about the interventions of the Greek lobby and the “No jets for Turkey” campaign, which he characterises as “defamatory” of Turkey.
The Greek and Greek Cypriot lobbies in the US stepped up their efforts to block the sale of F-16s to Turkey and released a video entitled “No to the sale of F-16s to Turkey”.
“Their only goal is to prevent the sale of F-16s to Turkey. And this is a video that tries to tarnish the image of our country,” he says.
At another point, the Turkish journalist insists because Greece and Greek-Americans accuse his country of… “alleged violations” of Greek airspace: “The Greek and Greek-Cypriot lobby in the United States of America, which is mobilising to prevent the sale of the F-16 in Turkey, started the propaganda. They posted a video on social media with the title “No jets for Turkey. They created the perception that the Turkish fighter jets, with their flights in the Aegean, allegedly violate the Greek airspace.”