Athens - The US envoy for Cyprus, Mr Richard Holbrooke, has sharply criticised his own State Department for keeping an equal distance between Athens and Ankara on the harassment of a Greek government aircraft by Turkish fighters, the state Athens News Agency (ANA) said yesterday.
"I have no doubt that the provocative action of the harassment of the aircraft by Turkish fighters indeed happened and I consider it a mistake on the part of the State Department that it doesn't accept this reality," Mr Holbrooke said.
Athens said last week that Turkish F-16s harassed in Greek airspace a plane carrying Defence Minister Mr Akis Tsohatzopoulos on his way home from observing war games in Cyprus. A similar incident had occurred on Mr Tsohatzopoulos's arrival in Cyprus.
Greece lodged official protests but a State Department spokesman, Mr James Rubin, said on Monday that Mr Tsohatzopoulos's plane was on a so-called over-flight over the divided island of Cyprus, breaking an agreed ban on such flights.