Turkey’s decision to scramble F-16s and jam the communications of aircraft carrying three EU defence ministers flying to Cyprus on Sunday was a deliberate attempt to assert control over the airspace above the occupied north and force compliance with the so-called control tower of the illegal Tymbou airport, according to Greek and Cypriot government sources.
President Nikos Christodoulides, confirming the harassment on Monday, said the targeting of aircraft from EU member states pointed to something larger. “There is absolutely no justification. The fact that it is happening to EU member states — France, the Netherlands, Greece — also shows a, if you will, revisionist approach,” he said.
The incidents affected the aircraft of Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias, French Defence Minister Catherine Vautrin and the Dutch defence minister as they flew to Nicosia for an informal EU Defence Ministers’ meeting. Philenews first reported the harassment on Sunday.
Turkey’s Presidential Communications Directorate confirmed the F-16s had scrambled but denied any harassment. In its statement, Ankara said four of six aircraft flying between Greece and what it called “the Greek Cypriot administration of southern Cyprus” had violated what it described as the airspace of the “trnc” on June 7, 2026, and that the jets scrambled “immediately for precautionary reasons.” It said the aircraft operated within that airspace and neither violated “the Greek Cypriot administration’s” airspace nor harassed any of the ministers’ planes.
By confirming the scramble while denying harassment, Ankara’s statement effectively acknowledged the core of what Philenews had reported. What Ankara did not address was the communications interference attributed by Phileleftheros to the so-called control tower at Tymbou, or the broader pattern of similar incidents involving European ministers flying to Cyprus.
Phileleftheros reporting indicates Turkey’s aim is twofold: to present the occupied north as a separate state with its own airspace requiring protection, and to use military force to pressure aircraft bound for Cypriot airports into responding to Tymbou’s communications — or face the consequences.
Government sources in Athens told Phileleftheros the incidents were also linked to Turkish anger over Cyprus’s deepening defence ties with EU partners. The harassment of Vautrin’s aircraft in particular, they said, formed part of a broader Turkish response to the imminent signing of a Status of Forces Agreement between Cyprus and France. Similar incidents had occurred on other occasions involving European ministers flying to Cyprus, according to the same sources.
Presidential Press Office director Viktoras Papadopoulos confirmed the harassment to CNA on Monday, saying Cyprus would lodge formal complaints with the appropriate authorities. Christodoulides said he expected the matter to be raised at the Defence Ministers’ Council. “I have the impression that the matter will also be discussed at the Defence Ministers’ Council,” he said.
EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, who was briefed on the incident along with the other defence ministers in Nicosia, made no comment on the Turkish actions in her remarks after the meeting. She focused on Russian aggression, saying time was no longer working in Russia’s favour on the battlefield and that Western sanctions had already cost Moscow 1.5 trillion dollars.
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