Greek Media: Greek And Turkish Fighters Engaged In A Hostile 'Dogfight' Over The Aegean Sea

The Turkish Air Force F-4E and F-16C Fighter Aircrafts (Photo by THK)

Aviationist: Turkish and Greek fighters engage in dogfight over the Aegean Sea

According to Greek media outlets, Greek and Turkish jets engaged in a brief dogfight over the Aegean Sea after Turkish aircraft violated Greek airspace “several times.”

As we already explained in the aftermath of the Russian Su-24 shootdown by a Turkish Air Force (TuAF) F-16 over the Syria-Turkey border last month, the skies surrounding the disputed islands of the Aegean Sea are often the theater of incidents between the HAF (Hellenic Air Force) and the TuAF.

In fact Greece claims 10 miles of air space around a chain of Greek islands lined up along the Turkish west coast, part of those are in very close proximity to the mainland, while Turkey recognizes only six miles (that is to say the extent of the Greek territorial waters, recognized by each other): even though the Greek authorities often report unauthorised military flights directly over the Greek islands, the majority of the close encounters and alleged violations (2,244 in 2014) take place within the four-mile radius between the boundary of the territorial waters (as said, recognized by both parties) and the 10-mile radius which Athens considers its sovereign airspace (while Ankara considers international one).

Update: Greek and Turkish jets in dogfight over Aegean (Ekathimerini)

Previous Post: Turkey Violated Greek Airspace 2,244 Times Last Year

WNU Editor: No missiles or bullets were exchanged .... but this is now getting testy. This has also happened before .... Turkish and Greek jets engaged in tense jockeying after Turkey violated Greek airspace (Business Insider).