Tension between Greece and Turkey has been rising in the Aegean Sea again in the last 24 hours, after Ankara deployed warships just outside the Greek territorial waters between the islands of Kasos and Karpathos.
The Turkish warships are monitoring the Italian research vessel “Ievoli Relume,” which is conducting surveys for the future installation of underwater cables for the Crete-Cyprus electrical interconnection project (Great Sea Interconnector – GSI).
Under the alleged pretext of its “continental shelf violation”, Turkey issued a Navtex claiming a “Turkish continental shelf” area south of Karpathos.
Turkey does not recognize that Greek islands have a continental shelf and claims its continental shelf extends from tits west coast to large parts of the Aegean Sea.
Ankara had previously lodged diplomatic objections to the presence of Italian cable-layer Teliri as it was laying optical fiber cables. daily kathimerini reported in an exclusive report.
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 in the area.
