Greek-Turkish tension rises

TENSIONS rose between Greece and Turkey yesterday as each country accused the other of being at fault over a near collision between naval ships in the Aegean Sea.

Defence Ministry officials in Athens said a Greek navy minesweeper brushed against a Turkish patrol boat on Wednesday in international waters between the two Greek islands of Chios and Lesbos.

The incident was the result of “dangerous handling by the Turkish captain”, the officials said.

A statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry in Ankara said the Greek minesweeper hit the Turkish patrol boat that had come to prevent the Greek ship from “harassing” a Turkish submarine.

“Today the attention of the Greek embassy’s first secretary was drawn to the gravity of the harassment incident… Turkey demands that Greek authorities take the measures necessary to prevent a repeat of such an event,” the statement said.

Turkey’s army chief Ismail Hakki Karadayi accused Greece of raising tension in the Aegean Sea.

“We avoid provocations as much as possible… They (Greece) always hope to benefit from tension. But we are after the truth,” Anatolian news agency quoted Karadayi as saying.

“Of course, this is a very serious event. It’s something like striking a man on the shoulder as he is walking down the street, it’s like a punch,” Karadayi was quoted as saying. He earlier described the event as an example of a Greek “hostile attitude”.

No injuries were reported on either side.

The slight collision was the latest in a series of incidents between Nato- members Greece and Turkey, which are at odds over Cyprus and the sovereignty of various small islands in the Aegean.

Athens has accused Ankara of numerous violations of its airspace coinciding with last week’s Nikiforos ’97 military exercises on the island.

“Our warning to Greece is that they should abandon this kind of game. We always accept them as a permanent friend and neighbour and a country with which we should cooperate within the Nato alliance,” Karadayi said yesterday.

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