“They want to stop our F-35s”: How Turkish media read Rubio’s Athens trip

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Turkish media are watching US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to Athens closely, and reading it almost entirely through the lens of Greek–Turkish rivalry. The focus is the F-35, Greece’s arms programs, and the planned electricity link between Cyprus and Crete.

Turkish media expect the Greek side to raise both a possible Turkish F-35 purchase and the weapons package for Greece’s own jets.

“The Greeks want to block F-35s for Turkey, and they will hold talks on the weapons for their own F-35s,” Turkish media are reporting. Turkish outlets also expect Athens to complain about Turkey’s recent violations of Greek airspace and to seek US backing for the Cyprus–Crete cable.

CNN Türk frames the 6th US–Greece Strategic Dialogue as the setting for defense talks worth roughly one billion euros. Citing Greek press reports, the network says defense, security and energy will dominate, with particular weight on the systems that will arm Greece’s F-35s. Deliveries, it says, are expected to start in 2029.

The same account holds that Athens is trying to stop Turkey from getting the aircraft while pushing to receive, as soon as possible, the 20 jets it has already ordered from the United States.

On bilateral relations, Turkish media expect the government to tell Rubio that Ankara is responsible for the recent rise in tension. CNN Türk presents that as its estimate of the Greek agenda, not as a statement already made in the meetings.

The Eastern Mediterranean power link is the other item Turkish coverage treats as central. CNN Türk says Athens wants to start work on the project within the next month and will ask Washington for active support.

Taken together, Turkish media are presenting Rubio’s visit and the strategic dialogue less as a routine US–Greece meeting and more as a contest over fighters, procurement and the Cyprus–Crete cable.

READ MORE: Greece Seeks Advanced Secret US Missiles to Boost Air Force.

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