Nicosia, Cyprus. Turkish Cypriot air traffic controllers’ trade union leader Kursad Hudaverdioglu on Monday rejected reports that aircraft carrying Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias to Cyprus had been harassed overnight. He described the reports as misrepresentations and said the matter was unrelated to harassment.
Union response to reports
Reports had said the control tower at Ercan airport interfered with communications between Dendias’ aircraft and Larnaca, as well as with communications involving the aircraft transporting French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin and the Dutch delegation.
Hudaverdioglu told the Cyprus Mail that “the matter has nothing to do with harassment” and said the F-16s “took off due to an emergency”.
“They flew to the north of the island without violating any borders from the moment they took off,” he said.
He added that the reports constituted “a completely politically motivated, misrepresentation of a news story”.
Aircraft activity and military presence
It was also reported that two F-16 fighter jets stationed in the north since March took off from Ercan airport and monitored from a distance the three aircraft, as well as others transporting defence ministers to Cyprus for Monday’s informal European summit.
A total of six F-16s have been stationed at Ercan since March. They were deployed after Cyprus was hit by an Iranian-made drone. The fighter jets were later joined by Hisar-A surface-to-air missiles.
Greek response to the deployment
Shortly after their deployment, Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis questioned the legality of the move, saying it is “prohibited” for Turkey to use the aircraft for “offensive actions outside the country”.
“The invasion and occupation of the northern part of Cyprus is illegal and does not legitimise any presence of a military force on the island. The F-16s, in fact, are prohibited from being used for offensive actions outside the country by the US supply contract,” he said at the time.
Greece had also deployed four F-16s to Paphos in March, and the country’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Lana Zochiou said at the time that Greece’s deployment was “purely defensive in nature”.
