The Slovenians on board a FRONTEX ship that was patrolling the eastern area of Farmakonisi island on Tuesday morning were shocked when they received a command from the Turkish side to abandon the area immediately because they were sailing in Turkish territorial waters! The incident occurred at around 03:00.
The FRONTEX officials quickly contacted the Greek coastguard which in return dispatched a patrol boat to the area right away. When the Greek coastguard vessel arrived it too received the same command, but refused to budge and sent a loud warning to the Turkish vessel instead: "This is Greece and you have to leave immediately".
The Turkish vessel did not leave either, and instead attempted to ram the Greek coastguard vessel by sailing past it in high speed and taking full advantage of its superior abilities as a vessel (the relevant boat is one of the new 11meter Turkish coastguard vessels).
This obviously provoked the Greek side, and then both parties armed their boats and soon after their weapons were unlocked. For a few seconds there was silence but the professionalism and calmness of our coastguard officials prevailed and they informed the Turkish vessel that they would lower their weapons with the condition that they did the same, and they did.
Despite the fact that the Greek boat is quite aged, its captain managed to avoid an explosive incident.
Since the incident this morning, one thing is certain, there is a lot of mobility in the area, as well as the island. Framakonisi has two or three fishermen who reside there permanently as well as a large platoon of soldiers. We must also reiterate that the sovereignty of this Greek island has never been recognized by Turkey.
Article in Greek defencenet
Posts
