Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar has once again directed fire at Greece, which he portrayed as a “bad neighbor” that “oppresses” Turkey.

“In the Aegean, we are constantly worried about a bad neighbor. Let me be clear that we don’t cause trouble if they don’t do this to us. This applies to the Navy, Air Force and Ground Forces. What we do is that we will not allow our rights to be violated. We will not accept any fait accompli. This is certain,” said Mr. Akar, who at the same time returned Turkish allegations of “locking” F-16s from Greek S-300s, allegations that, however, have already been categorically denied by the Greek side.

“As you know, there was an event on August 23rd,” Hulusi Akar said, and continued, “In the past, although we have negotiated with US long-range air defense systems to protect our airspace, they have not handed over the Patriot system to us. We talked to the French, they didn’t give us SAMP-T. So we went and bought the S-400. Then we got up, “how can you buy such a system?”. Now, on August 23, a weak version of this system, the S-300, has picked up Turkish F-16s on its radar during a NATO mission. What our evil neighbor did should be known, publicized and condemned. Such blatant recklessness, such ill-mannered attitude is unacceptable.”