Now here is some good news, the Hellenic Olympic Committee decided to add Kstelorizo to its list of sites where the Greek Olympic Flame will pass before leaving Greece and heading to the UK for this year's "London 2012" summer games. On such a note, the flame will leave the ancient site of Olympia on May 11 following a traditional ceremony, then travel to the island of Crete and following this will be taken for a run on the island of Kastelorizo. The latter island and the municipality is located in the southeastern Mediterranean roughly 2 km from the south coast of Turkey, or about 570 km southeast of Athens and all the eyes of the "petrol world" are glued to this place, not necessarily for the island itself and all its beauty but for its geo-strategic position. When Athens finally claims its full EEZ, Kastelorizo’s presence would make its EEZ contiguous with the EEZ of Cyprus, a factor with great importance now, since there are massive off-shore gas and oil discoveries being made. The tiny island of Kastelorizo with an EEZ benefits the emerging Greece-Cyprus-Israel alliance by making the transportation of Cypriot and Israeli natural gas (via pipeline) or electricity (via cable) to Western Europe possible without the permission of Turkey. The move by the Hellenic Committee is certainly symbolic... but it is sending out its own message to Ankara that clearly says "hands off"!
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