Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim called Prime Minister Alexisi Tsipras on Thursday and expressed his and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s condolences over the death of the Greek Air Force pilot Giorgos Baltadoros.
The 34-year-old pilot died when Mirage 2000-5 crashed into the sea off the island of Skyros after returning to air base from a mission to intercept Turkish fighter jets that had violated Greek airspace. Right after the crash, the Turkish General Staff issued a statement that no interception or ‘dog fight’ had taken place before the crash.
According to a statement from the Greek Prime Minister’s office, the two leaders “agreed to keep communication lines open in the near future and to strengthen dialogue between the two countries in the future.”
Some media reported that the Greek prime minister also mentioned the issue of the two Greek soldiers with his Turkish counterpart to have responded that this was a matter of the Turkish Justice – which everybody knows that it is independent.
However, according to state broadcaster ERT, Yildirim also briefed Tsipras about the course of the investigation.
The Greek soldiers are still in custody in high security prison in Edirne, NW Turkey, since March 1st.
As expected, neither the crash nor the condolences hindered Erdogan from unfolding his Great Neo-Ottoman vision saying “we will not turn our back to those who were Turkish citizens a century ago.” H ementioned also “West Thrace.”
Of course, they were Ottoman citizens and as everybody knows the Ottoman Empire collapsed… but these are the usual peanuts historical details for Turkey’s president.
