Every war the Turkish Air Force has fought
The record includes the Dersim operations of 1937, for which the state apologised in 2011, and Roboski in December 2011, where two F-16s killed 34 villagers. The Aegean and Syrian border entries report each government’s account and take neither side. Where a consolidated sortie or loss figure exists in the official record it is given here; where accounts disagree, the range is shown and the disagreement named. Blank cells are blank because no figure could be verified, not because the fighting was small.
From the Balkan Wars of 1912 to the air war over Syria.
| Conflict | Years | Against | Main aircraft | Sorties | Aircraft lost | |
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| The Balkan WarsOttoman aviation’s first warOttoman Aviation Squadrons | 1912–1913 | Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia and Montenegro | Blériot and other early types | |||
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Flew reconnaissance for the Ottoman army. The Ottoman air arm was barely a year old when the First Balkan War began. Its first two pilots, Mehmet Fesa and Yusuf Kenan, had qualified at the Blériot school in France only on 21 February 1912, and the school at Yeşilköy had opened on 3 July. Wikipedia’s history counts about seventeen aircraft flying reconnaissance between September 1912 and October 1913. Inexperience cost aircraft and men at first, but pilots improved with every month of fighting. The war was a disaster for the empire on the ground, and it convinced Istanbul that aviation needed more money, foreign help and trained crews — lessons that shaped the German-backed air arm of 1914. Outcome The Ottoman Empire lost almost all its European territory; the air arm learnt its trade. Aircraft types, sortie counts and losses were not confirmed on an official Turkish page.
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| The First World WarGallipoli, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and PalestineOttoman Aviation Squadrons | 1914–1918 | United Kingdom, France and Russia | German-supplied types | |||
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Reconnaissance, artillery spotting, fighter and bombing missions with German aircraft and many German aircrew. The First World War turned a handful of aircraft into a real air arm, but a largely German one. Germany sent some 460 aircraft, about 260 of which reached Ottoman units, together with pilots, observers and instructors; the ace Hans-Joachim Buddecke was among those who flew for the Ottomans. Squadrons flew over Gallipoli, the Caucasus, Mesopotamia and Palestine, and strength peaked in December 1916 at about 90 combat aircraft with 81 pilots and observers. In July 1918 the squadrons were reorganised as the General Inspectorate of Air Forces. The armistice of 30 October 1918 ended them, but the pilots and the surviving aircraft became the core of the nationalist air branch of 1920. Outcome The armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918 ended the Ottoman air arm. Victory and loss totals are not given; they were not confirmed in the sources checked. |
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| The Turkish War of Independenceflying for Ankara from KonyaAir branch of the Grand National Assembly | 1919–1922 | Greece | Surviving First World War aircraft | |||
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Flew reconnaissance for the nationalist army with aircraft left over from the First World War. After the armistice and the Allied occupation, Turkish aviators formed small units at Istanbul, İzmir, Konya, Elazığ and Diyarbakır from whatever aircraft survived. When the Grand National Assembly met in Ankara on 23 April 1920 it created an air branch under the war office; its pilots flew from Konya, and in July 1922 the branch became the Inspectorate of Air Forces there. The numbers were tiny and the aircraft worn out, but the air force still counts this war as the start of its republican history. Outcome The nationalists won; the Republic was proclaimed on 29 October 1923. Sortie and loss figures were not found.
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| Operations against the Sheikh Said and Dersim uprisings1925 and 1937–1938Turkish air units (under the Ministry of Defence) | 1925–1938 | Sheikh Said rebellion (1925) and Dersim uprising (1937–1938) | Interwar bombers and reconnaissance aircraft | |||
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Bombing and reconnaissance against Kurdish uprisings. The young air force’s first operations after 1923 were at home. In 1925 aircraft were used against the Sheikh Said rebellion in the east. In 1937 aircraft bombed in Dersim, today Tunceli, during the suppression of an uprising in which large numbers of civilians were killed; Sabiha Gökçen took part and was decorated, which is why her story is now told with this chapter attached. The Turkish General Staff described her bombing as causing serious damage. In 2011 Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan described the events in Dersim as among the most tragic in the country’s recent history and apologised on behalf of the state. Outcome Both uprisings were suppressed. In 2011 the prime minister apologised on behalf of the state for the events in Dersim. Casualty figures for Dersim differ widely between sources and were not verified here, so none is given.
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| The Korean Warone pilot, no squadronTurkish Air Force (one officer attached to US forces) | 1950–1953 | North Korea and China | B-26 Invader (US aircraft) | |||
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No Turkish Air Force unit deployed. Turkey sent an army brigade; one Turkish pilot flew with US forces. Turkey’s contribution to Korea was the Turkish Brigade, which served attached to the US 25th Infantry Division: 14,936 soldiers passed through it, and it lost 721 killed, 2,111 wounded and 168 missing. The air force sent no squadron. Its one representative in the air war was Muzaffer Erdönmez, described in the brigade’s history as the sole Turkish pilot, who flew a US B-26 and was shot down and killed while bombing railway lines. Korea mattered to the air force in another way: the brigade’s sacrifice helped carry Turkey into NATO in 1952, and with NATO came the jets. Outcome Armistice of 27 July 1953; Turkey entered NATO in 1952. The date of Erdönmez’s loss and his unit were not confirmed.
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| The Turkish intervention in CyprusOperation Attila; Greece and Cyprus call it the invasionTurkish Air Force | 1974 | Cypriot National Guard and Greece (ELDYK) | F-100C/D, F-104G, RF-84Fand 3 more | |||
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Close support, interdiction and bombing around Nicosia; transport and paratroop support for the landings. Turkey describes the operation of 20 July 1974 as an intervention under the 1960 Treaty of Guarantee after the Greek junta-backed coup against President Makarios; Greece and the Republic of Cyprus call it an invasion and occupation. For the air force it was the first real war since 1922. F-100 Super Sabres flew close support and bombed around Nicosia, F-104Gs and RF-84Fs flew strike and reconnaissance, and transports carried paratroops. Ground fire was heavy: by Wikipedia’s compiled list the air force lost about ten aircraft in three days. Its worst moment came on 21 July. Turkish aircraft, mistaking their own ships for a Greek force, attacked a Turkish naval group and sank the destroyer Kocatepe, the former USS Harwood, with 54 of her crew. The Greek side’s own worst air loss, a Noratlas shot down by Greek Cypriot gunners during Operation Niki, was also friendly fire. The political price came in 1975, when Congress’s arms embargo shut every US base in Turkey except Incirlik and İzmir. Outcome Turkish forces took about a third of the island in two phases (20–22 July and 14–16 August 1974). The US arms embargo that followed lasted until September 1978. Loss lists come from mixed, largely unofficial sources and are not confirmed by the Turkish government. Some accounts give a different death toll for the Kocatepe; 54 is the figure used by both Wikipedia articles checked.
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| Aegean airspace confrontationinterceptions, 1996 and 2006Turkish Air Force | 1974– | F-16C/D, F-4E, RF-4E | 2 | |||
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Flies military aircraft in what Turkey regards as international airspace over the Aegean, without filing flight plans with Athens, and is intercepted by Greek fighters. Turkey recognises 6 nautical miles of Greek airspace, matching Greece’s territorial sea; its Foreign Ministry calls the Greek claim to 10 miles an arbitrary attempt to shrink international airspace and says the Athens FIR, set up under ICAO in 1952, is a technical responsibility that confers no sovereign rights and cannot require flight plans from state aircraft. Greece’s Foreign Ministry says the 10-mile limit has applied uniformly since a decree of 6 September 1931, that Turkish warplanes violate it systematically, and that Turkey filed flight plans until 1974 and has refused since 1980, endangering civil aviation. On 8 October 1996 two Greek Mirage 2000s intercepted a Turkish F-16D near Chios; it went down, Captain Nail Erdoğan was killed and Lieutenant Colonel Osman Çiçekli ejected. Greece denied a shootdown; in 2012 Turkish Defence Minister İsmet Yılmaz said a Magic II missile had downed it. On 23 May 2006 a Turkish F-16 escorting an RF-4E collided with a Greek F-16 at 27,000 feet near Karpathos. Greece said the Turkish jets were in the Athens FIR without flight plans; Defence Minister Vecdi Gönül said they were in international airspace on a scheduled flight notified to NATO. The Greek pilot died; the Turkish pilot was rescued by a merchant ship. Outcome Continuing; periods of calm follow Greek-Turkish diplomatic contacts. The legal questions (airspace width, FIR rules) are disputed between the two governments; this entry reports each side’s stated position and takes neither. Wikipedia’s account of the 1996 statement says it described the F-16D as having violated Greek airspace; that wording is reported, not endorsed.
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| The air war against the PKKsouth-east Turkey and northern IraqTurkish Air Force | 1984–2025 | Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) | F-16C/D, F-4E 2020, Ankaand 1 more | |||
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Strikes on PKK camps and fighters, including cross-border operations in Iraq, flown by F-16s, F-4Es and, from the 2010s, armed drones. The PKK insurgency, about 40,000 dead on all sides between 1978 and 2025, became the air force’s longest war. The Turkish armed forces reported bombing PKK positions in northern Iraq on 26 May 1994, and the air campaign widened in December 2007, when strikes on camps in Iraq opened Operation Sun; on 16 December 2007 the air force first used AGM-65 Maverick and AGM-142 Popeye missiles at night. In August 2011 it struck 132 targets in six days. The same campaign produced its gravest error. On 28 December 2011 two F-16s bombed a group of about 40 villagers crossing from Iraq near Uludere; 34 were killed, most of them young smugglers of the Encü family. The air force said it had mistaken them for PKK fighters; on 7 January 2014 military prosecutors decided not to prosecute, finding a major error made within orders. After the peace process broke down in 2015, strikes resumed with Operation Martyr Yalçın on 24–25 July, and from 2019 the Claw operations relied heavily on drones. After Abdullah Öcalan’s call of February 2025 the PKK announced its dissolution on 12 May 2025. Outcome The PKK announced its dissolution on 12 May 2025 and began destroying weapons on 11 July 2025. Turkey, the EU and the United States list the PKK as a terrorist organisation. Casualty claims from both sides are generally unverifiable and are not given.
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| Bosnia and HerzegovinaDeny Flight and Deliberate ForceTurkish Air Force | 1993–2001 | Bosnian Serb forces | F-16C/D | 0 | ||
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F-16 squadrons flew in NATO’s operations over Bosnia, including Deliberate Force in 1995. Wikipedia records that Turkey kept two F-16 squadrons in Italy for the UN and NATO operations over Bosnia, one at Ghedi and later one at Aviano, and that Turkish jets took part in Operation Deliberate Force in 1995. The detachment returned home in 2001, after the Kosovo air war. It was the air force’s first sustained deployment abroad since 1918. Outcome The Dayton agreement ended the war in 1995; the Turkish detachment came home in 2001. The start date of the deployment (1993 here, with Deny Flight) and sortie totals were not confirmed on an official page. |
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| Operation Allied ForceKosovo and SerbiaTurkish Air Force | 1999 | Federal Republic of Yugoslavia | F-16C/D | 0 | ||
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Combat air patrols with laser-guided bomb capability. Turkey committed 18 F-16s to NATO’s air war over Serbia: 11 at Aviano in Italy and seven held in Ankara, all TAI-built and carrying laser-guided bombs and LANTIRN pods. Wikipedia credits Turkish F-16s with a combat air patrol of 9 hours 22 minutes over the Balkans, against a usual three to four hours, which it calls a world record. Outcome Yugoslavia accepted NATO’s terms in June 1999. The record claim comes from Wikipedia and was not confirmed on an official page. |
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| Syrian border shootdownsthe RF-4E, the MiG-23 and the Su-24Turkish Air Force | 2012–2015 | Syria and Russia (2015) | RF-4E, F-16C/D | 1 | ||
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Reconnaissance and border air defence. On 22 June 2012 an RF-4E of 113 Squadron from Erhaç was shot down off the Syrian coast; Flight Lieutenant Gökhan Ertan and Flying Officer Hasan Hüseyin Aksoy were killed, and their bodies were recovered from 1,280 metres on 4 July. Turkey said the jet had briefly entered Syrian airspace and left, and was hit by a missile in international airspace; Syria said it had violated Syrian airspace and was hit by anti-aircraft fire. On 23 March 2014 a Turkish F-16 shot down a Syrian MiG-23 near the border. On 24 November 2015 a Turkish F-16 fired an AIM-120 at a Russian Su-24M. Turkey said the bomber had crossed 2.19 km into Turkish airspace for 17 seconds after ten warnings in five minutes; Russia said it had stayed about 1,000 metres inside Syria. Lieutenant Colonel Oleg Peshkov was killed by ground fire from Syrian rebels as he descended by parachute, and a Russian marine died in the rescue; the navigator, Konstantin Murakhtin, was rescued. In June 2016 President Erdoğan wrote to express condolences to the families, and later that year said the two Turkish pilots had been arrested over alleged links to the Gülen movement. Outcome Russia imposed sanctions after November 2015; relations were restored after President Erdoğan’s letter of June 2016. Each government’s account of both shootdowns is reported as stated; the physical evidence was not independently assessed here.
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| The coup attempt of 15 July 2016the night at AkıncıTurkish Air Force (plotters and loyal units) | 2016 | F-16C/D, KC-135R, F-4E 2020and 1 more | ||||
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Plotters used F-16s, tankers and helicopters against state targets; loyal F-4Es bombed the runway at Akıncı. Akıncı, the 4th Main Jet Base north-west of Ankara, was the plotters’ command post. Six F-16s of the 8th Main Jet Base at Diyarbakır had been moved there the day before, and two KC-135Rs from Incirlik refuelled jets in the air. F-16s flew low over Ankara and Istanbul, and aircraft struck the Grand National Assembly several times after 03:00, the special police headquarters at Gölbaşı, where 42 were killed, and the Türksat headquarters. The Chief of the General Staff, Hulusi Akar, was held at Akıncı until special forces freed him; the air force commander, Abidin Ünal, was seized at a wedding in Istanbul. Loyal F-4E 2020s bombed the runway thresholds at Akıncı to stop further sorties, and power to Incirlik was cut and its Turkish commander, General Bekir Ercan Van, arrested. The government blamed the Gülen movement; Fethullah Gülen denied involvement. The former air force commander Akın Öztürk was convicted of a leading role; a UN Human Rights Council body later found he had been denied a fair trial. Outcome The attempt failed by the morning of 16 July. Akıncı was closed and renamed Mürted on 6 September 2016; a wide purge of the armed forces followed. Death tolls differ by source and by whether plotters are counted; the range is given. Figures for aircraft involved are reported as alleged.
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| Operations in Syria and IraqISIL strikes, Euphrates Shield, Olive Branch, Peace SpringTurkish Air Force | 2015–2019 | Islamic State and YPG/SDF | F-16C/D, F-4E 2020, Anka | |||
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Strikes on Islamic State and on the YPG, which Turkey regards as the Syrian branch of the PKK, in support of Turkish and allied Syrian ground forces. The air force began striking Islamic State in Syria and Iraq from 2015, and in July 2015 Operation Martyr Yalçın hit both ISIL and PKK targets. Euphrates Shield (2016–2017) was the first large Turkish ground operation in Syria, with Anka drones in heavy use. Olive Branch began with air strikes on 20 January 2018 against the YPG in Afrin; Turkey said the YPG and the PKK were one organisation, while the YPG and its US partners in the anti-ISIL campaign rejected that. Reports accused Turkish strikes of killing civilians and hitting hospitals; Turkey denied it and released drone video. Peace Spring followed in October 2019. Outcome Turkish-backed forces took Jarabulus to al-Bab (2016–2017), Afrin (18 March 2018) and a strip east of the Euphrates (2019). Casualty claims from all parties are contested and are not given.
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| Operation Spring ShieldIdlibTurkish Air Force and other Turkish drone operators | 2020 | Syria (Assad government) | F-16C/D, Anka-S, Bayraktar TB2 | 4 | ||
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F-16s shot down Syrian aircraft from Turkish airspace; armed drones struck Syrian government forces and air defences. The operation followed the air strikes at Balyun on 27 February 2020, which killed 33 or 34 Turkish soldiers; Turkey blamed Syrian and possibly Russian aircraft, and Russia denied involvement. On 1 March Turkish F-16s, flying inside Turkish airspace, shot down two Syrian Su-24s; all four crew ejected, and both sides confirmed the loss. On 3 March an F-16 shot down a Syrian L-39 over Idlib. The drones were the story of the week: Turkish sources claimed many Syrian air defence systems and vehicles destroyed with Anka and TB2 drones supported by electronic warfare, for the loss of four drones. Outcome Ceasefire agreed by Turkey and Russia in Moscow on 5 March, in force from 6 March 2020. Turkish claims of Syrian equipment destroyed were not independently verified.
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| NATO air policingBaltic statesTurkish Air Force | 2006 | F-16C/D | 0 | |||
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Four F-16s flew NATO’s Baltic Air Policing rotation. In 2006 four Turkish F-16s deployed for NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission, guarding the airspace of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, which have no fighters of their own. Later Turkish air policing rotations were not confirmed for this page. Outcome Completed. |
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Nothing matches that search.
Every figure, checked
- UK National Archives: Sinking of the Turkish destroyer KOCATEPE off Cyprus, 21 July 1974Catalogue record of the British file on the sinking; confirms date.
- Republic of Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Background note on Aegean disputeTurkish position on 6 and 10 nautical miles, the FIR and flight plans.
- Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs: National airspaceGreek position: 10 nautical miles since the decree of 6 September 1931.
- Hellenic Republic Ministry of Foreign Affairs: Athens FIRGreek position on flight plans; NOTAM 714 of 1974; Turkish refusal since 1980.
- Al Jazeera: Greek and Turkish fighter jets collide (23 May 2006)Greek and Turkish official positions, including Defence Minister Vecdi Gönül.
Figures verified 2026-09-29. Back to the Turkish Air Force.