r/europe • u/kalbinibirak • 9h ago
News Turkish F-16 fighters scramble after drones cross into Estonia’s airspace
https://migflug.com/afterburner/estonia-drone-border-crossing-nato-scramble-2026/105
u/kalbinibirak 9h ago
Estonia MoD:
"Estonian airspace is in safe hands.
Turkish F-16 fighter jets are guarding our skies from Ämari Air Base as part of NATO’s air defence mission.
Baltic Air Policing mission began on the same day Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania joined NATO in 2004.
Originally based at Šiauliai in Lithuania, it was strengthened after Russia’s aggression against Ukraine in 2014. Since then NATO fighters have also been based at Ämari, Estonia.
Fighters at both Ämari and Šiauliai remain on 24/7 readiness to protect Baltic skies.
It's a practical example of Allies sharing responsibility. Collective defence in action."
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u/Battlefleet_Sol 6h ago
Wait, wasn’t Turkey supposedly a Russian ally according to some users here?
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u/eyes-are-fading-blue 4h ago
Cobanin davarlari surdugu gibi suruyorlar buranin sakinlerini. Ne dusuneceklerini sasirdi kekolar.
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u/PimpasaurusPlum Scotland 5h ago
Some people prefer a simple team A and team B dynamic, while Turkey's whole sctick is taking advantage of the space in-between
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u/Positive_Radish_9403 5h ago
Erdoğan proposed to Putin that new nuclear power plants be built in Turkey.
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u/asylum_denier 5h ago
it will probably be Korean. The current joint project with Russia is disastrous, too many scandals to count ranging from delays, Russians refusing to transfer tech, high energy price, construction issues with worker strikes and parts delaying due to German sanctions. Nuclear know-how is so important that the current gov doesn't (and shouldn't) care about where it gets it from. There were even Masters students sent to China so they could learn how to build nuclear reactors.
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u/Zealousideal_Nail288 6h ago edited 5h ago
I would not say allies more NATO friendly neutral they are the most Russian friendly country in NATO powerful enough to actually matter ofc discounting for the orange idiot(which is closer to Russia than even China is sometimes)
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u/tabulasomnia Istanbul 5h ago
you could say a lot of things about turkey but "a russian ally" is not one of them
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u/Battlefleet_Sol 6h ago
more russian friendly than greece which carrying majority of the russian oil?
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u/Zealousideal_Nail288 5h ago edited 4h ago
turkey did buy a bunch of Russian weapons before and as far as i know turkey is the only nato airspace were Russian airplanes are allowed(civilian only, towards military aircraft they are actively shooting them down ) not to mention its some of the countries Russians have held "peace" negotiations in
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Russian_Sukhoi_Su-24_shootdown
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u/postexitus 5h ago
It is not entirely impossible that the current situation is all "NATO" blessed to keep Turkey to stay closer to Russia to keep some diplomatic, communication and transport channels open.
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u/Designer_Space7386 4h ago
just a heads up:
the phrase is as far as i know, not has far has I know
regarding why we allow Russian civilian aircraft: why shouldn't we? Do you think we have anything to gain by looking cute to EU?
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u/Battlefleet_Sol 5h ago
we are not in eu you genius. You didn’t include Turkey when you imposed sanctions on Russia, so why do you expect Turkey to comply with them?
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u/Zealousideal_Nail288 5h ago
its not about sanctions. were you buy your weapons says alot about your alliances. Canada would not buy su30 for obvious reasons.
and its not that Turkey stuck a good deal on a punch of AKs or hand grenades. nope s400 air defense systems
so a very advanced hard to replace system that needs lots of ammo supply from Russia-13
u/Q2TRFN 5h ago
We have voted yes on every sanction and aid package except the last one, we (our oligarchs) control 30% of global shipping, who was supposed to carry the oil? We just happen to have the ships and money talks. Turkey has not imposed any sanctions, Turkey has not given any aid except for the old scrap last month, Turkey allows Russian tankers to use it's water to avoid Ukrainian drones in the Black Sea.
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u/Battlefleet_Sol 5h ago
because we are not in EU you genius! We give more than your country ever did. Even before the war we sell weapons while countries like the germany send just helmets for aid. We send armored cars and another system for free. If you’re criticizing Turkey for not joining the EU embargo, then bring Turkey into the EU. It’s that simple, coach.
Turkey doesn’t show everything it sends to the media or make a big show of it.
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u/Q2TRFN 5h ago
You sell them weapons that they buy with EU money. You turn war into business. And you dont need to be in the EU to place sanctions on a country. You go out of your way to facilitate Russian trade and logistics when we shut them down, like you did with airports
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u/Battlefleet_Sol 5h ago
nope we sell our weapons with our money. War is business so your country just sold his soul and money for Israeli weapons. If I were you, I worry about the Israeli influence in my country
If you’re criticizing Turkey for not joining the EU embargo, then bring Turkey into the EU. It’s that simple, coach.
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u/the_mighty_peacock Greece 5h ago
It's a bunch of oligarchs carrying the oil, not Greece. Greek government is pretty pro Ukraine voting sanctions (ok except the last one) and giving weapons to Ukraine. They even committed to rebuild Mariupol's maternity hospital and invited Zelenskyy to talk in the Greek parliament. But corruption means if few rich people can influence the government to veto some sanctions package because it directly affects them, they will. It's not a political issue.
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u/Glittering-Grape-594 5h ago
Turkophobics say "Erdogan is Putin's ally" or "Turkey is going to attack Greece or Israel" or "Kick Turkey out of NATO"
Meanwhile Turkey has been supporting Ukraine and actively countering Russian influence in Syria, Armenia and even Libya.
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u/Ecstatic-List519 0m ago
You tell them!
Look at this Turkophobic claiming that Turkish missiles can hit Athens.
Where Athens is? Oh wait, it’s the capital of Greece.
And who is this Turkophobic guy? Oh yes it’s Erdogan.Get real with you nonsense people
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u/agnaddthddude Kurdish 5h ago
Turkey is an ally to EU as much as they are to Russia. they play politics to get the best for them. this comment and others just proves people dont knoe the world is more than white and black
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u/2dumb2g000gle 5h ago
Ah yes, the country that opposes Russia in pretty much every proxy war they’re involved in are actually their secret allies, who woulda thunk?”
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u/irregular_caffeine 4h ago
And buys S-400
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u/2dumb2g000gle 45m ago edited 40m ago
If you don't want to sell your ally AA weaponry so they can defend themselves, they'll get it somewhere else. You can thank the US administration for not supplying Patriot systems to one of its most important military allies in NATO. NO ONE gives a fuck about Greek or Bulgarian S-300s, isn't that funny?
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u/Iapetus404 Greece 2h ago edited 2h ago
Turkey sell weapons to Ukraine and same time Russia build nuclear power plants and gas pipe lines in Turkey.
Its like before 15-20 years when Greece bought submarines from Germany to protect our island from Turkey invasion and Germany 2-3 years later sell the same submarines to Turkey to help them invade.
Its called interests via diplomacy and politics.
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u/thatgamer2111 4h ago
countering russian influence in armenia by aiding a terrorist dictatorship to ethnically cleanse armenians? Explain your logic
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u/WhateverWannaCallMe 3h ago
Turks win a defensive war = genocide/ethnic cleansing Turks win an offensive war = genocide/ethnic cleansing.
Turks win bad others win good
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u/Cute_Establishment_4 8h ago edited 8h ago
Risk is high and Turkey is on the ground.
Lets remember that when risk was high in Syria USA-Netherlands-Germany pulled back Patriots but Spain remained.
Mind the karma.
Other then that, recently in my mind, if someone please can say Ukrainian drone operators and chain of command that they may have plenty of drones as a result of money donated them, but stop using these as personal toothbrush and hitting whatever you like in the black sea thru personal judgment. They might continue it, but mind karma. One may support your war and your point why you do that, but you cannot force/punish them to fight as you do and as your mean, they selected to support you, not to fight with you together as you like. I might guess plenty resources and power may got you drunk or loss of brothers in arms. Please don't let the things blind you.
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u/No_Size9475 7h ago
What do people think Russia's goal is in all of these excursions into NATO territory?
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u/Greenelypse France 5h ago
So they can say: ”look we’re losing the war because we’re fighting the whole NATO on top of Ukraine”
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u/tertiares 6h ago
Could be that they want to create a reaction to tell their people that they have been attacked. Snd then they may call for the big recruitment plan. So they may send another 1m into the meat grinder in Ukraine and maybe overwhelm Ukraine this way.
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u/Hot-Satisfaction-725 Turkey 6h ago
Why are we protecting Estonia?
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u/glonyr 6h ago
Because we are in NATO.
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u/Hot-Satisfaction-725 Turkey 4h ago
Fair enough, but I can’t help but think that Europeans have a negative opinion of Turks (especially Germans and Austrians) and that in a potential escalation against Russia Turkey should sit it out or only offer limited support to Europe
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u/WislaHD Polish-Canadian 3h ago
You do know that your country’s sphere of influence collides with Russia in the Black Sea, Caucasus, and in Syria, Iran, North Africa, right? The dream of every Russian tsar is to conquer Konstantinople and open the Bosporus, which Turkey currently holds.
Turkey has as much interest in Ukraine winning this war and bleeding Russia dry as the rest of the Western-aligned world. That’s why Turkey is in NATO.
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u/No-Heart3432 4h ago
NATO isn't about Europe
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u/WhateverWannaCallMe 3h ago
But it is certain most nato members wouldn't give a fuck if it was Turkey that was being attacked instead of Ukraine
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u/pittaxx Europe 2h ago
What gave you that idea?
Europeans might not be happy about Turkey for various reasons, but EU is very serious about NATO. I don't see any European NATO country refusing to help Turkey if it's attacked.
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u/Disastrous_Dot_7638 1h ago
When Turkey hit down a Russian plane in around 2014, Germany and Netherlands both withdrew their patriot air defences from Turkey. Only Spain stayed. That was one of the pivotal moments for Turkish foreign policy. Only then Turkey bought S-400.
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u/glonyr 3h ago
We have Spanish Patriot defense systems defending our southeast borders thanks to NATO. By that logic, it should not be Spain's business what happens in Syria but they honor their alliances and so should we.
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u/Disastrous_Dot_7638 1h ago
It’s because Spain is friendly with Turkey more than NATO because Germany and Netherlands withdrew their patriots right after Turkey hit a Russian plane around Syria and stakes were high.
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u/glonyr 55m ago
Netherlands withdrew their patriots before the plane was shot down. Germany announced its own cease of operations months before the plane crisis. And it should be noted that no matter the reason, both of these countries were stationed in Turkey for 2-3 years before their withdrawal which is not a short time.
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8h ago edited 8h ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/BestYearEver1453 8h ago edited 8h ago
I am waiting for Erdogans bootlickers to downvote this
No need to be overdramatic. No country on earth shares the "air space" definition Greece wants to invoke on Turkey.
Greece has 6 nautical miles territorial waters, airspace is defined as the space above the territorial waters. Greece defines its "airspace" as 10 nautical miles, those 4 nautical miles are all of greeces imaginary "airspace violations"
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u/Fluffy-Pop-3407 8h ago
Need to start sending a drone for every drone that comes over