Turkish Air Force fighter jets violated Greek airspace 22 times on Monday, February 15, 2016, according to a news release from the Greek General Staff.
The violations took place over the islands of Samos and Chios in the eastern Aegean Sea and over Lemnos and Lesbos in the northern part of the sea, the General Staff said, adding that two “virtual dogfights” between Greek and Turkish aircraft took place.
Six Turkish fighter jets and a navy transport plane carried out the airspace violations in the vicinity of eastern and central Aegean islands.
According to the report, two of the war planes were armed and twice engaged in mock dogfights with Greek planes that had scrambled to intercept them.
Two days later on Wednesday, Greek media reported that at least six Turkish fighter jets, flying in a single formation, violated Greek airspace.
Turkey’s air force is known to violate the neighboring country’s airspace almost on a daily basis. Turkish incursions reached a peak in 2014, when the number of violations reached 2,224, according to University of Thessaly figures based on Greek military data.
When a Russian aircraft violated Turkish airspace last November, Turkey shot the plane down with an air-to-air missile, creating an international incident and severing relations between the two countries.
“We would like the whole world to know that we will make every sacrifice and take every precaution when the subject is the security of our borders, the survival of our country in this ring of fire, the lives and greatness of our citizens,” said Ahmet Davutoglu, the Turkish prime minister at the time of his country’s attack on the Russian plane.