An incident in the eastern Aegean Sea last week, in which Turkish and Greek warships were involved, left many question marks both about its actual seriousness and about the true course of events and the motives of its participants, writes BTA.
From what is known from publications in the Greek press, on the evening of July 23, the Italian ship “Yevoli Relume” (Ievoli Relume) has headed to an area located between the Greek islands of Kasos and Karpathos for seabed surveys in connection with the construction of the electricity transmission link between Crete and Cyprus. Five Turkish warships were sent to the zone, but outside Greek territorial waters, and in response Greece also sent a frigate and a gunboat. “Yevoli Relume” remained in the area that Greece considers part of its exclusive economic zone, and which Turkey claims falls on its continental shelf, from about 11 p.m. on July 23 until about 3:40 a.m. on July 24, after which it retired back to Fr. Crete.
This is where the ambiguities begin. According to official Greek statements, the survey vessel has completed its planned actions. This was stated by Greek diplomatic sources, by government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis and by the Greek electricity system operator, quoted by ANA-MPA and “Kathimerini”.
According to the Greek portal for strategic information and risk assessment “Crisis Monitor” (Crisis Monitor), who wrote of a "Big defeat for Greece at Kassos", however, it is clear that the ship sailed earlier than planned and without completing its activities. The information site “Hellas Journal” (Hellas Journal) also notes that the ship did not cover the entire area reserved by Greece with a NAVTEX navigational notice and did not reach the area that is outside the country's territorial waters but considered part of its exclusive economic zone.
The fact that while “Yevoli Relume” was approaching the area of the surveys, the station in the Turkish city of Antalya also issued a NAVTEX for the surveys, and in addition, the Greek side, contrary to its practice, did not issue a counter-notice declaring the Turkish one invalid for lack of jurisdiction.
Greek diplomatic sources quoted by “Naftemboriki” said that in the case between Ankara and Athens, the communication channels established within the framework of the dialogue started after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's visit to Greece last December were activated , but the content of this communication is not known to the media.
Different interpretations of the event develop around these circumstances. In the Turkish media, quoted by the correspondent of the Greek Sky TV in Istanbul, the claims prevail that Greece has asked Turkey for permission for the explorations, with which it has de facto recognized its rights in the area. “(Greece) recognized our continental shelf”, writes “Turkiye Gazetesi” and specifies: “We have given permission to Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece, which was laying cables at sea with an Italian ship in Turkey's maritime jurisdiction, took a step back when faced with our naval forces. Athens, which requested permission from Ankara for the activities, was forced to recognize our continental shelf”.
The thesis that in some form permission was requested from Turkey for the activity of the Italian ship, is also shared by a number of publications in the Greek press, and the famous journalist Stavros Ligeros speaks on his personal website slpress.gr directly about a “disorderly retreat of the Mitsotakis government” of Athens' rights in the zone. He recalls that Greece made great efforts and paid a high price to conclude the agreement with Egypt on the delimitation of the exclusive economic zones in the Eastern Mediterranean in order to neutralize the analogous agreement between Turkey and Libya - two mutually exclusive agreements that intersect precisely in the area of last week's incident.
The topic was also raised by Stefanos Kaselakis, leader of the largest opposition party in Greece - the left-wing SYRIZA, who asked the government to answer whether the Greek Foreign Ministry asked Turkey for permission for the activities, why Turkey thanked Greece and Italy on the cooperation and whether it is true that Greece has not responded to the Turkish navigational notification, which implies claims to the Greek exclusive economic zone.
For his part, in response to a question in parliament, Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis flatly rejected claims that Athens had sought any permission. He stated that “there was no retreat” and said that the Italian ship ended its activities not only in Greek territorial waters, but also in Greece's exclusive economic zone, and that it had been in the area even longer than planned.
“Crisis Monitor” sees the allegedly premature withdrawal of the ship as more of an intervention on the part of the Italian side, noting that on a diplomatic level it allowed Athens and Ankara to publicly maintain their positions, but on a political level “Giorgia Meloni intervened as well as his predecessors, in favor of Turkey”.
The publication does not rule out that permission from Turkey was requested from the Italian ship, since a similar case has already occurred in the past, and the new incident “strengthens Turkey's claim that it is a disputed area”.
In any case, the doubts and internal disagreements after this case will leave a bitter aftertaste for Greek diplomacy. This is not the first case since the beginning of the warming of relations between Athens and Ankara in the last year and a half, in which Greece has been put in an uncomfortable position. Just days before the visit of Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis to Ankara in May for a meeting with President Erdogan, Turkey turned the world-famous Byzantine Christian temple “Hora” in Istanbul from a museum back to a mosque - too great a coincidence in time to be entirely coincidental.
However, as “Kathimerini” writes, according to Greek diplomatic sources, the situation off the island of Kasos last week was managed with “subtle diplomatic moves”, something that reflects Athens' desire not to disturb the “calm waters” until the end of September, when the next meeting of Mitsotakis and Erdogan is planned within the framework of the UN General Assembly in New York. At this meeting, it is expected that there will be difficult discussions about the continuation of Greek-Turkish contacts in the next period.