Turkish and Greek fighter jets have engaged in a mock dogfight over the eastern Mediterranean, the second direct confrontation between the two Nato powers this month.
Ankara sent F-16s to intercept six Greek jets as they returned from Cyprus — where they had been participating in war games — to their base in Crete.
The Greek defence ministry said that its jets, also F-16s, called for back-up at 11.30am yesterday, and then “proceeded to the immediate recognition and interception of the Turkish aircraft”.
The contact came only hours after President Trump held separate phone calls with President Erdogan and Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek prime minister, urging both to “commit to dialogue”. Earlier this month a Greek frigate clipped a Turkish navy ship during war games close to Crete.
Last night Jens Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of Nato, said that the alliance would mediate in the spiralling dispute by “developing mechanisms to prevent incidents and accidents”.
“The fact that there are so many ships, so many military capabilities in a quite limited area, that in itself is a reason for concern,” Mr Stoltenberg told Reuters.
The Greek air force had been participating in joint naval and aerial drills with Cypriot, French and Italian forces, the latest in a serious of increasingly confrontational exercises in the triangle of waters between Cyprus, Crete and the Turkish coast.
Turkey has also been holding drills in the area, and has sent its warships to accompany the Oruc Reis, a seismic survey ship, which is currently stationed midway between Cyprus and Crete, in waters that both Turkey and Greece have laid claim to.
A Turkish drill ship, Yavuz, is currently positioned to the southwest of Cyprus, in the Cypriots’ exclusive economic zone. Total and Eni, the French and Italian hydrocarbons behemoths, have been handed licences to survey and drill in the area, but suspended their operations in May due to Turkey’s increasingly
belligerent presence.