A court in Edirne, in northwestern Turkey, on Friday placed two Greek soldiers under arrest on espionage charges, state-run Anadolu news agency reported.
Greece's army command said the two soldiers mistakenly strayed onto Turkish territory in bad weather while on patrol on the northeastern Greek border. A Greek government spokesman had said it expected their swift return.
The court ordered the pair - a lieutenant and a sergeant - to be charged with "attempted military espionage" and "entering forbidden military territory", Anadolu said. Local media reported the court ruled that data on their phones be investigated.
The soldiers told the court that they ended up on the Turkish side after following footprints in the snow and that they meant to send the images they took on their phones to senior officers, Anadolu said.
A river marks most of the border between Turkey and Greece, and a fence runs along much of the land section.
The Turkish government has been angered by recent Greek court decisions not to extradite eight Turkish servicemen who escaped to Greece following a failed military coup attempt in Turkey in 2016.
Greek government spokesman Dimitris Tzanakopoulos, speaking before Anadolu reported the arrests, said the return of the two servicemen who had accidentally entered Turkey was a "pure formality."
Asked whether Greece was worried that the government in Ankara could use the Greek soldiers to secure the extradition of servicemen who fled Turkey, Tzanakopoulos said: "I have heard various scenarios since this morning about possible negotiations the Greek government could enter with Turkey on possible exchanges. These are spy and conspiracy scenarios that do not merit comment."
The relations between Athens and Ankara also escalated in recent weeks following an incident near the disputed islets of Kardak, in the Aegean Sea, where a Turkish boat collided with a Greek patrol ship.
