Turkey cancels military NOTAM with ‘inaccurate coordinates’ over the Aegean

ANKARA

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has said Turkey “mistakenly” declared inaccurate coordinates for long-distance dangerous areas over Aegean Sea and canceled the Notice to Airmen (NOTAM).

Ankara would not declare a new dangerous area for a certain period of time, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said in a written statement on March 3.

The issue of long-distance dangerous areas declared by Greece and Turkey in the Aegean has been on the agenda for a long time and Turkey last year proposed Greece to mutually cancel those areas, said Bilgiç.

“However, we have not received any positive responses yet. We are willing to find a timely solution to this issue within the framework of the Confidence-Building Measures talks between Turkey and Greece,” he said.

“For this purpose, the recent NOTAM that was declared with an inaccurate coordinate has been canceled, and at this point no new dangerous area will be declared for a certain period of time. Our position based on the principle of reciprocity is reserved with regard to this issue,” Bilgiç noted.

“On this occasion, Turkey is repeating its call to the recently formed government of Greece to approach the existing issues between two countries in a constructive manner and by making use of the available diplomatic channels of dialogue,” Bilgiç also said.

Greek Foreign Ministry Spokesman Constantinos Koutras said March 2 that Turkey has withdrawn the NOTAM, which it had issued to reserve extensive airspace over the Aegean Sea for military use from March 2 to Dec. 31.

Greece had complained about the planned manoeuvers, which it said would have intruded into Greek airspace, interfered with the traffic of two regional airports and affected two international air traffic routes.