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Turkey to host Greek fighters for the first time at NATO's 2015 'Tiger Meet'
Turkey is to host Greece for the first time at a multinational NATO exercise in May 2015, marking an important step in the easing of tensions between the two nations.
Until recently pilots from the two NATO nations were regularly conducting hostile dog-fighting manoeuvres against each other in disputed airspace over the Aegean Sea. In 2006 a Greek pilot was killed after Greek and Turkish F-16s collided as they sparred over the Aegean.
Greek and Turkish fighters from the 335th and 192nd fleets, respectively, will join other alliance members in NATO's 'Tiger Meet' exercises, to be staged at Turkey's central Anatolian town of Konya between 4 and 15 May 2015, Turkish and Greek sources confirmed to IHS Jane's .
The two countries have been embroiled in an unresolved, decades-old dispute concerning sovereignty rights in the Aegean Sea, as well as over the eastern Mediterranean island of Cyprus, which is divided between Turkish and Greek Cypriots.
Tensions that had relaxed between the two countries in recent years have flared again following Greek Cypriot attempts to conduct oil drilling activities around the disputed island, prompting the Turkish Navy to be deployed in the region.
A total of around 100 fighter aircraft from 11 countries, including Greece, are expected to take part in Tiger Meet.
Turkey to host Greek fighters for the first time at NATO's 2015 'Tiger Meet' - IHS Jane's 360