Reports that Turkish Cypriot air traffic controllers “harassed” the aircraft on which Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias was flying to Cyprus overnight are “misrepresentations” of the truth, Turkish Cypriot air traffic controllers’ trade union leader Kursad Hudaverdioglu said on Monday.

It had been reported that the control tower at Ercan (Tymbou) airport had “interfered” with communications Dendias’ aircraft and Larnaca, as well as communications between the aircraft transporting both French Armed Forces Minister Catherine Vautrin and the Dutch delegation.

Additionally, it was reported that two F-16 fighter jets, which have been stationed in the north since March, took off from the airport and “monitored from a distance” all three aircraft, as well as others which were transporting defence ministers to Cyprus for Monday’s informal European summit.

However, Hudaverdioglu told the Cyprus Mail that “the matter has nothing to do with harassment”, and said that 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”.

A total of six F-16s have been stationed at Ercan (Tymbou) since March, being deployed after Cyprus was hit by an Iranian-made drone. Those fighter jets were then joined by Hisar-A surface-to-air missiles.

Shortly after their deployment, Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis had questioned the legality of the move, saying that 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 of its own to Paphos in March, and the country’s  foreign ministry’s spokeswoman Lana Zochiou had insisted t the time that her country’s own deployment was “purely defensive in nature”.

Meanwhile, Omer Celik, the spokesman of Turkey’s ruling AK Party, said of his own country’s deployment that “we have to consider the security of the TRNC”.

F-16 fighter jets were manufactured by companies from the United States, with US governments typically setting out conditions regarding their use when they are sold to other countries, though no explicit conditions regarding their use in Cyprus has ever been made public.

The most recent procurement of F-16s by the Turkish government took place in 2024, with the $23bn sale having hinged on Turkey’s parliament ratifying Sweden’s application to join Nato in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Prior to that, the Turkish air force had operated F-16s since 1987, with Turkish Aerospace Industries even manufacturing its own F-16s between 1987 and 2011. Greece acquired its own F-16s for the first time in 1989.

Before this year, Turkey had once before stationed F-16 fighter jets in Cyprus, deploying them to Gecitkale (Lefkoniko) airport in 1998 in response to Greece’s positioning of four F-16s and two Lockheed C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft at Paphos airport amid rising tensions between the two countries.