Turkish media reports that Turkish boat was rammed by Greek vessel
Turkish media has reported that a Greek boat rammed a Turkish vessel that was fishing near an uninhabited Greek islet in the northern Aegean Sea.
“Greeks rammed and caused damage to the boat of a Turkish fisherman who was fishing off the coast of Gokceada [Imvros] in the area of Zurafa Island,” Yeni Safak, a newspaper close to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP government, said, referring to the islet that Greeks also call Zourafa or Ladoxera.
Zourafa is located about six nautical miles east of the Greek island of Samothraki and ten nautical miles north of the Turkish island of Imvros.
The article quoted the fisherman in question, Ilker Ozdemir: “We were in the Blue Homeland, we were in international waters. They came, they couldn’t stand it, they hit us. We are now being towed and they left. Unfortunately, our boat has been hit; we can’t move.”
The term “Blue Homeland” refers to a Turkish doctrine that envisages Turkish influence over large swaths of the Mediterranean and other seas at the expense of other countries in the region.
The article claims that Ozdemir went with his son to Zourafa to fish in his 12-meter boat and that while he was there “Greeks hit his boat with their own boats and destroyed it.”
Ozdemir and his son then called an emergency number to report the situation, as a result of which Turkish coast guard vessels arrived at the scene and towed the Turkish fishing vessel to Imvros, which the Turks call Gokceada.
