The Greek Foreign Ministry handed a note of protest to the Turkish ambassador in Athens Burak Ozugergin amid a recent incident with Turkish jets chasing on Monday the helicopter transporting Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras to the eastern Aegean island, Ekathimerini reported.

As reported earlier, eight Turkish military aircraft committed 47 air violations, while the Greek prime minister said that Turkish fighter jets harassed the helicopter in which he was traveling to a remote Greek island to celebrate Greek Independence Day.

The incident occurred only a few days after the foreign ministers of Greece and Turkey agreed to meet the two delegations to discuss confidence-building measures based on an agreement signed in 1988.

According to Athens, Turkey violated the 1988 agreement, which stipulates that both states refrain from military actions and avoid holding military drills during the tourist season and national and religious holidays.

Greek officials view the violations as a demonstration of Turkey’s aggressive position in general, and not simply as a pre-election campaign by the Recep Tayyip Erdogan government ahead of March 31 elections.

The representative of the Turkish security service, in their turn, noted that Turkish fighters did not pursue a helicopter, but performed their duties.

Greek authorities considers the incident as another manifestation of Turkey's long-promoted theory of “gray zones” in the Aegean whereby it disputes the sovereignty of several islets and islands in the eastern Aegean.