The Turkish Foreign Ministry has handed Greece a verbal note of protest over a publication by the Greek Air Force on social media of C-130 military transport aircraft just two days after the crash of a Turkish plane of the same model in Georgia, which killed 20 servicemen, reported “Türkiye Today“, citing CNN-Turk.
The now-deleted publication on the official profile of the Greek Air Force, which affected the Turkish side, shows photos of numerous C-130 aircraft parked on a runway, with the text: “Photos of the day!“.
This caused a sharp reaction from Turkish officials, as well as social media users, who defined the publication as inappropriate and incompatible with good neighborly relations.
The deputy chairman of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party, Faruk Acar, went even further and wrote on social media: “Know your limits. Otherwise, we will make you learn them. You know it very well“.
For its part, the Greek Air Force deleted its post within minutes of the criticism, and its Chief of General Staff Gen. Dimosthenis Grigoriadis sent his Turkish counterpart Gen. Ziya Cemal Kadıoğlu a letter of condolence.
The Greek Ministry of Defense clarified to Anadolu Agency that the controversial post had nothing to do with the Turkish plane crash, and that the photos were from a Greek Air Force ceremony and were published because they were impressive. Greek officials added that the post was taken down to prevent misunderstanding.