Cyprus said Turkish forces interfered on Monday with aircraft carrying European defense ministers to an EU meeting on the island, escalating a diplomatic row that touched three European countries and involved the plane of Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias.
Greek, Cypriot and other European officials said the disruption affected flights carrying ministers from Greece, France and the Netherlands as they headed to Cyprus for the gathering, with Cypriot officials saying the government will lodge formal complaints and brief EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and the European Council. The issue matters now because the island was hosting the ministers while serving as the holder of the six-month rotating European Council presidency, giving the complaint immediate weight in Brussels as well as Nicosia.
Victor Papadopoulos said the defense ministers of Greece, the Netherlands and France had told Cyprus that their aircraft received interference from the illegal Tymbou airport, and he said the Republic of Cyprus would denounce the incidents where appropriate. In Dendias’ case, he said Turkish fighter jets were also seen operating in the area, while a Cypriot official said the aircraft carrying the Dutch representation to Cyprus was also harassed.
Officials in Greece and Cyprus said radio communications with the aircraft were disrupted by controllers operating from Ercan airport, near Tymbou in the Turkish-controlled north, and that two Turkish F-16 fighter jets took off and tracked at least one of the planes as it approached Cyprus, while keeping their distance. The timing sharpened the political edge of the episode: the ministers were flying in for an EU defense meeting, and Cyprus and France were due to sign a Status of Forces Agreement in Nicosia later that day.
That account was rejected by Kursad Hudaverdioglu, who denied the incident and said the F-16s took off due to an emergency and flew to the north of the island without violating any borders from the moment they left the ground. He said the reports that the Turkish jets tracked the European officials’ aircraft were completely politically motivated, leaving unanswered what emergency prompted the takeoff in the first place.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish forces invaded after a coup backed by Greece, and the Turkish Cypriot north is recognized only by Ankara. Ercan airport is not internationally recognized and is not registered with the International Civil Aviation Organization, which gives the dispute a familiar edge but does not make Monday’s incident any less immediate for the officials who were in the air when it happened.
