Kotzias says Greece may seek damages for rammed vessel

Greece ponders seeking compensation from Turkey for the coast guard vessel a Turkish ship rammed off Imia island on Monday, said Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias late on Thursday.

Speaking on Alpha TV, the head of the Greek diplomacy revealed he has asked his ministry’s legal service to examine such a possibility. If the legal service argues Greece has the right to seek damages, Kotzias said he would be very happy for Greece to act by the law.

Besides saying that Greece’s response to another such incident will not be peaceful, the foreign minister predicted there will be no recurrence of the Imia incident by Turkey, stressing that it should not happen again.

“The Turks ought to hear that, as they keep speaking of warnings and warnings. I have told them that Greece – and I’m saying this in the positive sense for the following countries and with regards to Turkey’s behavior – is neither Syria nor Iraq. We are a strong state with good defense, good defensive systems, good allies and high diplomatic capacity.”

Kotzias went on to analyze Turkey’s policy of aggression, saying that Ankara is nervous because “it is not faring well in Syria, has an open front in Iraq, with Armenia it has its borders closed, on Cyprus it behaves like a cowboy due to the exclusive economic zone and due to the apparent discovery of large quantities of natural gas.”