Ertugrul Ozkok: This pilot can not be a Turk

“The event that I will tell you today shows the education given by the Turkish Army to its officers. I had already written my opinions about Lieutenant Colonel Osman Cicekli, who jumped from the airplane (which crashed in the Aegean Sea during a dog-fight with Greek jets and in which a Turkish pilot was killed) and who was rescued by Greek boats. He had refused to speak in a press conference without having a shave and he had spoken to the journalists after having a shave and wearing clean clothes. This had impressed me very much, because I saw this action as the reflection of the culture given by the Turkish Army to its officers.“I learned about the evaluation of the issue in Greece from my friend Panos Koliopanos (who published in his magazine the news that the Turkish airplane was downed by Greek jet). A high-level official from the Greek Defense Ministry had called him during the press conference of the Turkish pilot, saying that, “This person speaking on TV can not be a Turkish pilot. His English is perfect. I think he is an Israeli pilot.” On these days there was a discussion in Greece that Turkish pilots were being trained by Israeli forces. “Look at the Turkish officer. Even if he could not remove the trauma of the crash, he still thinks about the image of his institution.”�