Turkish warplanes and drones breached Greece’s airspace 17 times over the Aegean Sea Thursday, Greek officials said, and in one case a Greek jet fighter sent to chase them off became embroiled in a simulated dogfight against a Turkish pilot.
Airspace violations had also been recorded over the past three days, but Thursday’s was the first simulated dogfight since July 10, and the eighth overall this year.
The incident came a day after Greece announced it would be pushing on with a major project – to which Turkey strongly objects – to link the Greek and Cypriot power networks through an undersea cable.
Greek officials said two of Thursday’s airspace violations were by armed US-made Turkish F-16 fighter jets, one of which became involved in a mock dogfight against a Greek plane deployed to chase it off.
A Turkish ATR-72 turboprop spy plane and unpiloted drones also violated Greek airspace, the officials said.
