Dogfights over Aegean hit by Greek economic crisis

ANKARA - Hürriyet

Dogfights between Turkish and Greek aircrafts over the Aegean Sea have significantly decreased due to the economic crisis Athens is struggling with, daily Hürriyet has reported, citing data from General Staff.

The number has decreased from 34 to nine, when January data is compared with last year. The report said Greek F-16 jets engaged Turkish F-16s for a total of 61 minutes in January 2012, which had decreased to 14 minutes in January 2013.

The longest interference of the Greek side this year was measured on Jan. 17, when Greek aircrafts engaged Turkish jets for 12 minutes over the island of Chios.

Greek media reported that each hour of a dogfight costs 11,000 euros, and “expensive” dogfights are seen as being among the causes of the current economic crisis.