Tensions rise again in the Aegean
Tensions rose in the Aegean over the past few days, something that had not happened since 2022.
Turkey deployed five warships, not all simultaneously, just outside Greek territorial waters between the islands of Kassos and Karpathos, in the southeastern Aegean, under the pretext that the Turkish continental shelf had been violated.
The so-called violation – Turkey does not recognize that islands have a continental shelf – was caused by the presence of the Ievoli Relume, a research vessel flying the Italian flag, which is researching the sea for the future deployment of underwater sea cables for the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI), the electricity connection between Crete and Cyprus.
Ankara had previously lodged diplomatic objections to the presence of Italian cable-layer Teliri as it was laying optical fiber cables.
Initially Turkey sent two frigates and a corvette, while only one Greek ship, a gunboat, was present. The arrival of two Turkish missile cutters prompted the appearance of a Greek frigate.
But another source of bilateral tension was created by a television appearance of Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis, who was promoting the abilities of the advanced multi-role F-35 aircraft, which Greece has decided officially it will acquire from the US, which has decided not to sell them to Turkey. Referencing an old threat by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Turkish forces could appear “suddenly one night,” Georgiadis boasted that “one night you can appear in Ankara and destroy everything.” “I’m not saying we’ll do such a thing, because we don’t want to, but when Erdogan says such things, I burst out laughing. You’ll come in Greece one night, with what? With your clunkers? Everyone knows that Turkey’s air force is a nullity, these past five years that Mitsotakis has governed.”
Georgiadis’ boasting was picked up by Turkish media, which said that “the Greek minister has crossed the line.”
