According to reports, the Turkish corvette "BOZCAADA", departed from the port of Smyrni and then entered Greek territorial waters on February 20 (at 11:00) and reported to have reached the area near northern Mykonos and southern Naxos. Then the warship changed course and moved west, then north and began to sail around the area of southern Paros. Then it changed its route once again and sailed between southern Sifnos and southern Antiparos and at 14:30 the Greek navy detected the ship between the areas of Mylos and Folegandros while leaving Greek territorial waters.
Throughout its little cruise, the Turkish vessel was closely being monitored by two Hellenic navy ships (a missile boat and a frigate), since it was more than obvious that Ankara wanted to show its muscle to Greece with its usual bully tactics and the "innocent passage" excuse was just not going to cut it this time. As such, the Greek navy sent out a command that the Turkish challenge should be "clearly" answered from the Greek side.
This new provocation from Ankara, is not a spontaneous act on the part of the Turkish Navy, but is obviously politically driven and a reply to the Greek government over the statements it made several hours earlier when it said that it will proceed (with the support of France) in declaring its EEZ.
The corvette is a D'Estienne d'Orves A69 type, in other words it is one of the six used Corvettes that the Turkish Navy had received from France. It is closely related to the TCG Bodrum (F-501) vessel which in August 2009 had left behind a souvenir -or a sonar dome- in the sea area just off of Kastellorizo.
Looks like things are heating up in Greek territorial waters...
Stay tuned Frappers
Article in Greek defencenet onlatert
Posts
