Rick Scott: trip to Israel, Greece and Cyprus “strengthened” my hard line on Erdoğan, citing Turkish F-16 violations and the occupation of northern Cyprus

Republican Senator Rick Scott of Florida is returning from his tour of the Eastern Mediterranean with his critical stance toward Ankara strengthened. In an interview with the American outlet Jewish Insider, published on Monday, October 26, he said his trip to Israel, Greece and Cyprus “strengthened” his critical stance toward Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The reason, as he explained, is that all three governments he met share the same frustration: over violations of Greek airspace by Turkish fighters and over Turkey’s attempts to obstruct the subsea energy cable that will link the three countries. “Both Greece and Cyprus are frustrated with Turkey. Turkey keeps violating Greece’s airspace with American-made F-16s,” he said. “They’re trying to stop Greece, Cyprus and Israel from laying electric cables. There are more cables in the Mediterranean than you can imagine.”

The senator dwelt in particular on the fact that Ankara uses American aircraft against a US ally, and linked it to the Turkish occupation of northern Cyprus. “When you see F-16s flying, American F-16s, over a US ally, over Greek territory, and fifty-some years later, why are they still on Cypriot soil?” he asked. “Do you think the part of Cyprus Turkey controls is more successful than the other side? No. The part Turkey claimed was the most successful part of Cyprus then, but not today.” In Cyprus Scott walked along the Green Line, the UN buffer zone that divides the island since the Turkish invasion of 1974.

It is not the first time Scott, for years a critic of Erdoğan, has turned openly against Ankara. In mid-October, while still in the region, he had accused Turkey of not behaving as a NATO ally. In the new interview he also gave a broader message to the American public: “I think Americans don’t realise how close war is to this country, especially now that there are hypersonic missiles and nuclear weapons. There are crazy people out there, so that tells you we have to be focused.”

The meetings

During the tour the senator held more than a dozen meetings with American and foreign officials. He saw the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, the ambassador to Cyprus, John Breslow, and Josh Hack, chargé d’affaires of the US Embassy in Athens after Kimberly Guilfoyle’s resignation as ambassador. He also met Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, Greek Deputy Prime Minister Kostis Hatzidakis and members of the Hellenic Parliament, as well as senior energy, defence and government figures from all three countries.

As top moments of the trip Scott cited two stops in Israel: a visit to the Israeli army’s Northern Command, where he viewed from a helicopter the terrain of southern Lebanon where Hezbollah is still active, and a stop at Majdal Shams, where he met families of the 12 Druze children killed by a Hezbollah rocket in the summer of 2024. In his written statement on the trip he called US-Israel cooperation a “model” for how America’s alliances should work.