Turkey has canceled a visit to Athens planned for today by the Minister of the Interior Ali Yerlikaya, reports the Greek newspaper “Kathimerini“, quoted by BTA.
Yerlikaya was due to make a one-day visit to Athens today for a working lunch with Civil Defense Minister Michalis Chrysochoidis, Maritime Affairs Minister Christos Stylianidis and Migration Minister Nikos Panaiotopoulos, the newspaper said, adding that the focus of the talks was to be migration and security.
At noon on Monday, Athens was informed by Ankara that the visit was canceled without further explanation, reports “Kathimerini”. According to unnamed sources cited by the newspaper, the Greek side believes that this development of events is due to the increase in tension between Athens and Ankara in recent days.
Officials from Turkey and Greece have recently exchanged several sharp statements following an incident last week involving Turkish ships near the islands of Kasos and Karpathos, the newspaper said. The tension arose as the Italian research vessel “Ievoli Relume” (Ievoli Relume) was conducting research on an underwater electrical connection between the islands of Crete and Cyprus. Although the Italian ship had permission for the survey from Greece, Turkish warships warned the Italian vessel that it had entered waters that Turkey claims are part of its continental shelf.
The Italian research vessel completed its surveys by Wednesday (23 July) and set sail for Heraklion on the island of Crete after diplomatic efforts to ease tensions, Kathimerini said.
In December last year, the construction of an underwater electricity connection between Crete and Cyprus began, which represents the first stage of the construction of the Greece-Cyprus-Israel submarine interconnection cable. The French company "Nexan" (Nexans) won the €1.43 billion contract to supply and install the submarine cable between the two islands.