EurActiv –A Turkish warship yesterday (29 January) approached the small Greek island of Imia, reaching a distance of one nautical mile from the shore, triggering strong reactions from Greek authorities.
The Greek navy prevented the Turkish ship from reaching the islet and requested it to depart from its territorial waters. According to Turkish media, Turkey’s chief of the armed forces, Hulusi Akar, was on board.
Turkey’s provocative move took place after the Greek Supreme Court ruled on 26 January that eight soldiers who fled to Greece after a failed coup attempt in Turkey should not be extradited to Ankara.
The eight Turkish soldiers sought political asylum in Greece after the failed July 2016 coup attempt. Turkey asked Greece to extradite them with the accusation of having been involved in the coup attempt.
According to Reuters, on Saturday (28 January) around 40 mostly high-ranking Turkish soldiers who worked at NATO facilities in Germany had also requested asylum. “Our expectation from Germany is that they will never accept the asylum requests,” Anadolu quoted Turkey’s defense minister Fikri Isik as saying.
After the announcement of the court decision, the Turkish ministry of foreign affairs issued a statement saying that Greek authorities had failed from fulfilling the minimum requirements of combatting terrorism and crime.
“As a country that has experienced coups in the past, Greece, with this decision has regrettably put itself in a position of a country that provides shelter and protection to putschists,” the statement said, stressing that Turkey will “comprehensively” evaluate bilateral relations.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan suggested that the Greek government had promised him that the case would be resolved “within 15-20 days”.
Since the failed coup attempt, Ankara has adopted a more aggressive tone toward Athens. On 30 November, Turkey’s Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, referred to the eastern Aegean Imia islets as “Turkish soil”, while previously, the leader of the Turkish Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu accused Greece of occupying 18 islands in the Aegean Sea.
The European Commission condemned those declarations at the time, saying “the EU stresses the need to respect the sovereignty of member states over their territorial sea and airspace.”
“The EU urges Turkey to avoid any kind of source of friction, threat or action directed against a member state, which damages good neighbourly relations and the peaceful settlement of disputes,” said spokesperson Maja Kocijancic.
