Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on Sunday, warned that his country would not sit by idly if Greece continues to arm its islands in the Aegean.
What Happened: Erdogan said Turkey‘s short-range ballistic missile, Tayfun, which it test-fired over the Black Sea in October, has scared Athens, reported Politico.
“Of course, this production scares the Greeks. When you say ‘Tayfun,’ the Greek gets scared and say, ‘It will hit Athens.’ Well, of course it will,” Erdogan said during a speech on Sunday in Samsun, northern Turkey.
“If you don’t stay calm, if you try to buy something [to arm yourself] from here and there, from America to the islands, a country like Turkey will not be a bystander. It has to do something,” Erdogan added.
The Turkish missile can hit a target at a distance of about 560 kilometers, according to the country, a range more than double that of the current missiles in Turkey’s arsenal.
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Turkey has long-running territorial conflicts with its fellow North Atlantic Treaty Organization member Greece, including maritime boundaries, overlapping claims to their continental shelves and the long-running Cyprus dispute.
Now, Ankara is increasingly frustrated by what it sees as a growing Greek military buildup on the disputed Aegean Islands close to its coastline and the U.S. military support for Athens.
Last week, Erdogan’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also warned Greece to stop militarizing the Aegean islands, otherwise the country “will take the necessary steps on the ground.”
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