So close to a war as in these days, Turkey and Greece were for the last Time 24 years ago. 30. January 1996 was countered by a rock reef in the Aegean, which the Greeks call Imia and the Turks Kardak, 15, Greek -, and 18-Turkish war vessels. This was preceded, a Turkish citizen raised on the Greek island to the Turkish flag. The American President Bill Clinton settled the conflict in calls that should have lasted the whole night.
Rainer Hermann
editor in the policy.
F. A. Z.
back Then, it was only to territorial claims, today, also guess about the development of the ground in the Eastern Mediterranean in a fight. And another difference: back Then, the American President gave this week, German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke by telephone with the Greek Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Erdogan did not want any more long h3> <p class="atc-paragraph of Text" waiting for , The tensions between the two countries have increased throughout the year, since Erdogan on may 16. January had announced that Turkey will not wait long to exercise their right and seek in the Eastern Mediterranean for natural gas. Advance, an agreement was signed in Turkey with the help of the UN-recognized government in Libya, and was gone. Thus, Turkey has claimed territories in the Eastern Mediterranean, the peoples are legally considered to be Greek territory.
Now Turkey is making Serious. At the beginning of the week, the Turkish exploration ship Oruc Reis ran out of Antalya with the aim of, to the South of the Greek island of Kastellorizo to record the work. According to the law of the sea Convention the 1982 United Nations-inhabited and habitable Islands of the country as this is also an Exclusive economic zone of 200 nautical miles. Turkey accepted this, however, is no longer for the Greek Islands in the Aegean and in the Mediterranean sea. Kastellorizo spent three kilometers from the Turkish mainland, but more than 500 km away from Athens, claimed, however, to the detriment of Turkey up to 200 nautical miles as an exclusive economic zone, recently said the Turkish foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.
On Wednesday his spokesman Hami Aksoy went to Ankara in the diplomatic Offensive. The “Maxi Mali stand tables of the Greek claim to a continental shelf” in contradiction to international law and the decisions of the courts, said Aksoy. Therefore, the Greek statement is not correct, Turkey is engaged in “illegal exploration”. It could not be, that the island of Kastellorizo claim in the Mediterranean sea, a territory of 40,000 square kilometres.
combat aircraft to hunt on the Greek island
began The military sabre-rattling, as on Monday from the Turkish Navy 15 warships to ports in the southern Aegean expired. On the same day, Greece shifted its Navy on high alert. On Tuesday Turkish F16 fighter planes were chasing then about Kastellorizo. Already on 30. In June they had flown over the Islands of Agathonisi and Farmakonisi provocative, a day after the visit of the Greek President Katerina Sakellaropoulou on Kastellorizo. The tensions are fueled by the fact that Turkey has announced naval exercises to the South of Kastellorizo and Greece near the island of Kythira, South of the Peloponnese. On Wednesday, it was from the Greek Navy circles: “units of the Navy are since yesterday in the South and Southeast of the Aegean in use.”
