“Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has admitted to being unable to control Turkish military flights that frequently caused tension in the Aegean region between neighbors Turkey and Greece, according to a leaked U.S. Embassy cable from 2004,” Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review reports.

“The cable, which was recently released by the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, notes that then-Dutch Foreign Minister Bernard Bot was “disturbed” by Erdogan’s admission to him “that he could not stop the flights because he did not control the military.”

“The leaked report from the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands was filed Dec. 2, 2004 following a meeting with Bot just days before a crucial European Union meeting in which members agreed to permit Turkey to begin negotiations for full EU membership,” the source says.

“According to the leaked cable, Bot asked for U.S. assistance in convincing Turkey to suspend military operations in the Aegean until at least Dec. 17 because the flights were providing a pretext for Greece to agitate against Turkish accession,” the daily reads.