Greek Foreign Ministry lodges demarche over Imia incident
The Greek Foreign Ministry has lodged a demarche to protest against the latest incident in the Aegean where a Turkish coast guard vessel rammed a Greek patrol boat off the Imia islets in the Aegean.
The incident occurred late on Monday night, soon after Turkish warships stopped a drillship belonging to Italian energy giant ENI from exploring for gas in Block 3 of Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ).
In a statement, the ministry said that the Turkish ambassador to Athens had been summoned over the incident.
It blamed the “dangerous incident” on Turkey’s “escalating and provocative behavior” in recent days.
“Turkey must put an end to the violations of international law and to actions that do not contribute to the strengthening of relations between the two countries,” it said, adding that Greece would continue to defend regional security and stability.
