The skies above the Greek seas will be filled with French Rafale one could say by combining the 4 areas that Athens has already reserved around Crete for exercises of the French aircraft carrier "Charles De Gaulle" from February 15 to 22 with the new NOTAM issued by Greece following a relevant request from France and for the area in the southern Ionian Sea.
Apparently, the French aircraft carrier that was in Egypt yesterday will pass through the area of Greek jurisdiction, sailing westward, returning from its mission that took it all the way to the Indian Ocean.
Specifically, with NOTAM A0471/23, Athens committed an area that reaches from the west of Pylos and Methoni to close to the western limits of the Athens FIR, for the period of February 22 to 24.
Especially the two areas are in the axis of the notorious illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum, which means that Paris, which asked Athens to commit these areas and recognizes Greece's jurisdiction in this area, but also sends a message to Ankara that its attempt to this area is a dead end.
With this exercise as well as the fact that the Pentapostagma has already mentioned and has to do with the deployment of the force accompanying the Dixmude helicopter carrier of the French fleet, everything shows that Paris wants to increase its presence in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Possibly France wants to be ready for any eventuality as it is possible that at this stage Erdogan is absorbed by the situation caused by the earthquake and cannot move with new provocative actions against Greece since there is now a feeling of friendship towards Greece our country after the contribution with the Special Disaster Response Unit rescuers, however after some time and with the elections getting closer and closer it is not unlikely that he will venture something that will raise the tension in the Eastern Mediterranean again.
It should not escape our attention that even the NAVTEX that was recently issued for Turkey's 4th floating drilling rig, the Abdulhamid Khan, has expired and it has tied up in the port of Seleucia waiting for the next mission which according to statements Turkish officials like the energy minister will be somewhere in the Blue Homeland…
