Ten years after? No! Twenty years later! Turkey demands life sentence for a Greek pilot over alleged jet downing during a dogfight in 1996 that cost the life of a Turkish pilot. Turkish prosecutors demand two aggravated life sentences for a Greek pilot who allegedly downed a Turkish F-16 jet in the Aegean on 8. October 1996, while the surviving Turkish co-pilot demands a compensation of 1 million euro.
According to Turkish daily Hurriyet,
“The fighter jet navigated by Pilot Captain Nail Erdoğan took off from the Marmara province of Balıkesir for training on Oct. 8, 1996. The jet later crashed to the south of the Greek island of Chios. The second pilot Lt. Col. Osman Çiçekli was rescued, but Erdoğan and the wreckage of the jet could not be found.
The incident was referred to as a dogfight and aircraft accident in the legal documents.”
Exactly twenty years after the incident, Erdoğan’s children and lawyer applied to the Greek authorities for filing a criminal lawsuit against the Greek pilot, and Turkish officials submitted a petition claiming that the jet was downed and Erdoğan was killed intentionally.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office in Ankara reportedly completed the investigation into the incident after obtaining radar and conversation records of the two jets from the General Staff. The radar and conversation records of the Greek pilot were also translated into Turkish. Surviving pilot Çiçekli apparently claimed in his testimony that they were shot down by a missile fired from one of the jets without motive in international airspace.
The Turkish indictment demands that the Greek Mirage 200 pilot Thanos Grivas be sentenced according to Turkish Law, to two aggravated life sentences on charges of “voluntary manslaughter” and “actions for weakening the independence of the state.” It also demanded another 12 years for “vandalizing the jet.”
The lawyer of Erdoğan’s family said that the trial would be held in Turkey unless the Greek authorities take action, due to a judicial assistance agreement with Greece. He also said the pilot would be arrested during the trial process, as it was in the Mavi Marmara case with Israel, and a red notice would be issued.
Surviving pilot Cicekli jumped in the case and demands a compensation of 0ne million euro. Lt Col Cicekli survived the incident after he made use of the automatic pilot seat, he was rescued by Greek boats within the Greek territorial waters, was hospitalized on the island of Chios and was transported back with Turkey with a Greek C-130.
And there the case reached Athens, with a prosecutor in Ankara to have asked Greek judicial authorities to help start legal procedures against the Greek pilot, two months ago.
The Turkish request raised concerns at the Greek Foreign Ministry especially over its timing, as it comes during a period of increased tensions between the two countries after a spate of Turkish air space and territorial waters violations in the eastern Aegean Sea.
Today, the Appeals Council in Athens rejected the request of the Turkish pilot’s family and the compensation demand.
What makes the family of a killed pilot and a surviving co-pilot to go on trial 20 years later? Lack of evidence in previous years? Courage given by army officers and nationalists?
PS Fine. Turkish authorities can hold a trial in Ankara now…
…twenty years to the day, is no coincidence; for internal consumption.