Video of Turkish jet in north a ‘message’ to Greece

Turkey’s defence ministry has released a video of a Turkish F-16 jet carrying out an aerobatic demonstration over the north of Cyprus, where the pilot is seen saluting the giant flag of the ‘Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus’ on the Pendadaktylos mountain.

Published on the Turkish defence ministry’s Twitter feed over the weekend, the video shows the jet – dubbed SoloTurk – flying over parts of Kyrenia. The edited footage then cuts to a fly-by over the Pendadaktylos mountain, at which point the pilot salutes the crescent moon of the flag of the ‘TRNC’.

The footage was recorded with a camera mounted inside the cockpit.

In its Tweet, the Turkish ministry captioned the video with the words ‘Salute to the crescent.’

Turkish media commented that the release of the video was intended as a ‘message’ to Greece, said to be ‘provoking’ Ankara by conducting military drills on the Greek islands of Mytilini and Rhodes.

According to Wikipedia, the SoloTurk is a single-aircraft aerobatic demonstration team of the Turkish Air Force. The team uses a specially-painted General Dynamics F-16C Block 40 aircraft which is combat-ready.

The video can be seen here:

Selam olsun Beşparmak Dağlarındaki Ay Yıldız’a…🇹🇷

@solotürk#KuzeyKıbrısTürkCumhuriyeti pic.twitter.com/xKkecar4vm

— T.C. Millî Savunma Bakanlığı (@tcsavunma) December 4, 2022