Several Turkish F-16 fighter jets were "harassed" by a Greek S-300 air defense system during a routine mission, the Anadolu Agency has reported, citing anonymous Turkish security sources.
The jets were reportedly flying west of the island of Rhodes on August 23, when they were "radar locked" by the air defense system deployed on Crete. The system had been tracking the jets for around 30 minutes as they flew above the Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean, the anonymous sources of the Ministry of National Defense told CNN Turk.
"Despite this hostile act, the planes completed their planned missions and returned to their bases safely," the sources told the AA.
In conversation with the media outlets, the security sources lambasted the incident as a "hostile act incompatible with the spirit of NATO"; Turkey and Greece are both members.
The sources separately called out the double standards policy of certain members of the alliance, which harshly criticized Ankara's decision in 2017 to purchase S-400 air defense systems from Russia to boost security, but failed to lecture Greece over buying the S-300 system back in 1997.
Turkey lost its contracts for manufacturing F-35 parts and purchasing the fifth-generation fighter jets from the US over its move to acquire S-400s. Washington claimed the defense systems threatened exposure of secret F-35 technologies to Moscow. The US also claimed that buying weaponry from Russia was "incompatible with the spirit of NATO", but had no issues with the S-300 purchased by Greece.
Turkey and Russia dismissed Washington's concerns over F-35s as unsubstantiated. Ankara proposed creating a working group with Washington to work out the issue, but the US said no options were acceptable with exception of Turkey not deploying and not using S-400s.