Turkey will continue to ‘annoy,’ says Erdogan at jet presentation
Turkey will continue to “annoy those on the other side of the sea,” the country’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, said on Monday in what is seen as a fresh swipe against Greece following a thaw in relations between the two countries.
“You will have noticed that every success of our defense industry annoys the [opposition] and those on the other side of the sea. But, don’t get me wrong, we will continue to annoy them… We are Turkey,” Greece’s Skai TV reported Erdogan as saying at the presentation of a new Turkish-built fighter jet in an event at Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) headquarters, in Ankara.
Named Kaan, the fifth-generation, 21-meter jet is able to reach a maximum speed of 1.8 Mach thanks to its twin engines, according to Daily Sabah. It is designed to gradually replace Turkey’s fleet of F-16s, which are to be phased out starting next decade, the report added.
The new jet, said Erdogan, “will be able to drop bombs and missiles on the enemy and return to base without being detected.”
It “will be able to sneak into the enemy’s nest, without being detected by the radars,” he added, according to Skai.
Erdogan’s comments come as Turkey head into general elections on May 14.
