Over the past 24 hours there has been a flashpoint between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean Sea over a territorial row and the Greek Navy have had all leave cancelled.
As a result, warships have been deployed at two holiday hotspots where thousands of Brits go every year as Ankara has threatened that their troops could “suddenly” turn up “one night” in Greece.
The Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said that the Greek air forces could strike Turkey using F-35s undetected on Ankara in just “one night.”
Between the islands of Karpathos and Kasos Turkey deployed warships inside the territorial waters as the Turkish navy are monitoring the Levoli Relume an Italian research vessel.
The vessel is carrying out surveys for possible underwater cabling for the Crete-Cyprus interconnection project.
🇮🇹 Buoy-Laying Vessel Ievoli Relume today noon south of Kasos & Karpathos islands with 5 warships (in white circles) nearby
Closest warship -most probably a Turkish Navy Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate- at ~500 m from Ievoli Relume. pic.twitter.com/3tOdjoVQjm— AegeanHawk (@AegeanHawk) July 23, 2024
However, Turkey has said this is a “continental shelf violation” and sent a NAVigational TEleX (NAVTEX) which can be used for forecast or warnings.
The NAVTEX says that it is in fact the “Turkish continental shelf” in the area of south Karpathos, as Ankara does not recognise the Greek Islands have continental shelves.
Turkey says that their continental shelf starts from their west coast to the parts of the Aegean Sea.
Turkey has previously issued diplomatic objections of the Italian underwater cables of fibre optics and sent a gunboat and two missile cutters which then saw a Greek warship attend the area.
Outside Greek territorial waters Ankara has sent a total of five warships since Monday warning that their continental shelf in the Aegean Sea has been violated.
The Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis said that the Greek air forces could strike Turkey using F-35s undetected on Ankara in just “one night.”
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that Turkish forces “suddenly” could turn up in “one night,” then Georgiadis threatened 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 to 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.”
Turkish media reported that “the Greek Minister has crossed the line.”
Ankara’s Foreign Ministry renounced the Greek Defence Minister, Nikos Dendias who said that Turkey is an “invader” in relation to the 50th anniversary of when Turkey invaded Northern Cyprus.
The Turkish President was quoted as saying of Dandias comments, “From time to time, we see some populist figures in Greece attempting to undermine relations between the two countries.
“We want to improve relations with Greece as good neighbors. But certainly, this does not mean that we should remain silent in the face of such nonsense.”
The Greek Reporter wrote, “I told (Mitsotakis) that there won’t be remarks that will irk each side and he said he shared the same view. However, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias unfortunately had something different in mind.
“Obviously, he was unaware of our talk with Mitsotakis and spoke ill (of Turkey). Calling Turks ‘invaders’ is an immoral, tactless expression. Mr. Mitsotakis should put this minister of his in his place,” Erdogan added.
In Athens diplomatic sources said, “The Italian ship Ievoli Relume is conducting research for the deployment of underwater cables near Kasos.
“The deployment of Turkish navy ships in the area, following the sailing of the research ship in international waters, resulted in the deployment of Greek warships as well. Necessary communications are taking place in anticipation of the completion of the research according to the existing schedule.”
Adding that “due consultations are taking place with a view to completing the investigation based on the existing programming.”
