Turkish jets violate Greek air space
Six Turkish F-16 fighter jets violated Greek air space over the Aegean Sea on Tuesday, the National Defense General Staff (GEETHA) said in a statement.
According to GEETHA, a formation of six aircraft entered the Athens Information Region between Lesvos and Chios at 3.01 p.m. before splitting into two groups.
Four jets flew over the island of Fourni between Samos and Chios at 3.25 p.m. while the other two flew over Makronisi and Anthropofagoi islets before flying over Agathonisi.
The Turkish jets were chased off by Greek aircraft.
The violations took place in the wake of a minor diplomatic spat between the two Aegean neighbors after a message on Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras’s account on Monday accused Turkish jets of repeatedly violating Greek air space.
“Fortunately our pilots are not as mercurial as yours [were] against the Russians,” Tsipras told his Turkish counterpart Ahmet Davutoglu in one of four tweets that were later erased in reference to Turkey’s shooting down of a Russian fighter jet flying in its national air space last week.
