Two Turkish F-16 fighter jets flew over two small Greek islands in the Eastern Aegean Sea on Thursday afternoon, according to an announcement made by the Greek National Defense General Staff.
The pair of Turkish fighter jets unlawfully entered Greek airspace at 12:44 and 12:56 PM local time (10:44 and 10:56 GMT), flying over the islands of Farmakonisi and Panagia.
Turkey is believed to have violated Greek airspace because the Turkish Air Force did not submit an official flight plan to the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR) in Greece, as they are required to do, before entering Greek airspace.
The Thursday overflights were the first violations of Greek airspace in 2019. Such violations, even including a flyover of Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos when he was reviewing troops on Ouinousses in December, have become a routine practice for the Turkish Air Force over the last decades.
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