Turkey is increasing its security in the tiny part of the Aegean Sea within its territorial waters in fact without apparent reason. State news agency Anadolu said on Thursday that the Turkish Navy deployed a frigate and two gun boats in the Aegean and ordered them to be on alert around the clock.
Τhe Turkish operation is called “Blue Homeland” and is supported by Special Underwater Forces of SAT and Turkish unmanned aircraft.
The move aims to “prevent possible provocative actions” from Greece, the stat-run news agency said.
Anadolu reported that the Turkish Naval Command increased the security measures in response to what it claims to be Greece’s attempt to stoke tension in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.
Other Turkish media cite as reason for the increased security the recent “provocative” statements of Greece’s Defense Minister, Panos Kammenos, who spoke of extending the territorial waters, in the sense of fully implementing the law of the Sea. Also the statement by the President of the Hellenic Republic, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, that there are no grey zones in the Aegean were perceived as “provocative” by Ankara.
Greece reacted cool to the news of “increasing of security in the Aegean” and sources of the General Staff reportedly commented that the issue was “part of the Turkish propaganda” with the aim to “incriminate Greece for rising tension in the Aegean.”
At the NATO meeting today, Kammenos is expected to brief his counterparts of the Turkish threats to “abduct the 8 Turkish servicemen form Greek soil.”
