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Although his powers pseudo-states they repeated the constant tactic of harassing them military (state) aircraft of Greece and other EU countries. when they fly within the FIR of Nicosia, the interference from the occupied Tymbou airport (Ertsan) to the C-27 transporter that transported the Minister of National Defense to Cyprus Nikos Dendiasas well as those of the French Minister of Armed Forces Catherine Vautrin and her Dutch delegation highlight Ankara’s rigid stance on a number of issues.
First of all, in this way, Ankara reminds the “27” that the participation of the Republic of Cyprus in the E.U. it in no way moderates Turkey’s perception of the situation on the island. According to some interpretations, the harassment (that is, the announcement of the well-known claim of the occupying forces that responsibility for part of the airspace of Cyprus not so much over the land as over the sea does not belong to Nicosia, but to the authorities of the pseudo-state) was done in order to also express annoyance to the signing of the Nicosia and Paris SOFA agreement for the larger and stronger presence of the French armed forces on Cypriot soil. Such a thing, of course, did not need interference, as both the Authorities of the pseudo-state and Turkey directly and publicly denounced the specific agreement.
Yesterday, perhaps the most important meeting in Nicosia was the one held by the personal envoy of the Prime Minister. of the UN for the Cyprus issue Maria Angela Holgin with Mr. Christodoulidis. Mrs. Holgin will continue the contacts next week as well – outside of Cyprus – with the aim of repeating an informal five-party meeting as soon as possible. The current situation, in which it is recorded and intensive dialogue between Ankara and Brussels for several issues, perhaps it creates space for a substantial restart of contacts on the Cyprus issue. Of course, in the c.g. of the UN Antonio Guterres has a few more months of his term left, as the process has already begun that will lead to the election of a new head of the Organization at the end of November.
“Such harassment are unacceptable. There is absolutely no excuse. The fact that it takes place in member states of the E.U. – France, Holland, Greece – also shows a revisionist approach”, said the President of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulidis, who received Mr. Dendias at the presidential palace yesterday, denouncing the incidents. For his part, Mr. Dendias informed the Council of Defense Ministers of the EU, which met in Nicosia, about the incident.
He confirmed the harassment and the representative of the Cypriot presidency, Victor Papadopoulos, who added that in the case of Mr. Dendias, “it seems that even Turkish fighter jets from a distance were flying in parallel”.
Later yesterday, from her contact address Turkish presidency it was noted that “the claims in some media and social media accounts that Turkish aircraft harassed the aircraft carrying Greek Defense Minister Nikos Dendias and European ministers and that Turkish aircraft violated Greek airspace are completely false”. As the same announcement states, “on June 7, 2026, four of the six aircraft operating on the Greece-South Cyprus route violated the airspace of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) (the pseudo-state). Therefore, two Turkish F-16 aircraft performing air traffic control duties stationed in the TRNC immediately took off as a precautionary measure.” In the same announcement it is noted that “the Greek airspace was not violated in any way”.
