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Greece is sending troops to an island off the Turkish coast, despite the island’s demilitarized status. Turkey has already warned of a previous military deployment on another island, according to a report cited by Sabah, BGNES reported.
Video images released by TRT Haber show Greek soldiers on the island of Ro (Karaada), part of the municipality of Kastelorizo, which has become a hot topic of debate between the two countries on the rights of natural resources in the Mediterranean. Oriental. The report notes that Greece has converted a number of civilian buildings on the island into a military headquarters used by troops. The island of Rho is only 2.4 km (1.5 nautical miles) off the Turkish coast and is uninhabited. Turkey criticized Greece for its military deployment from the demilitarized island of Kastelorizo in August, calling it a provocation and demonstration of its true intentions in the eastern Mediterranean.
The island received demilitarization status from the 1947 Paris Peace Treaties, but Greece had previously held military exercises there. Kastelorizo is the largest island of a small group of 14 larger islets and islands in the Aegean Sea near Turkey, which is called the Dodecanese. Relations between the two countries have been strained on a number of issues, including the Eastern Mediterranean dispute, the Cyprus issue and Greece’s defense of fugitives from the Gulenist terrorist group (FETO) that participated in the failed coup attempt by 2016.
The two sides also disagree on the rights of the Turkish Muslim and Greek Orthodox communities, as well as Greek support or inaction against terrorist groups aimed at harming Turkey. But the current dispute focuses specifically on the Eastern Mediterranean, where Turkey has sent the research vessel Oruç Reis for exploration activities. The Turkish government disputes Greece’s claim for exclusive rights in the waters in which the research ship operates, arguing that the islands should not be included in the calculation of maritime borders between countries.
Greece claims that even its smaller islands, which cover the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean, many of which are just a few kilometers from mainland Turkey, are in line with maritime rights and the expansion of the country’s continental shelf. Athens claims 40,000 square kilometers (11,660 square nautical miles) of maritime jurisdiction, along with the area it attributes to the island of Kastelorizo of 10 square kilometers – 580 kilometers (313 nautical miles) from its mainland. However, these accusations have been compromised by Greece’s agreement with Egypt, which limits the continental shelf of the islands it traditionally protects. In doing so, it refutes its own claims that the islands’ continental shelves cannot be restricted, Sabah said. Previously, the Greek government agreed to limit the continental shelves of some of its Ionian islands in a similar agreement with Italy.
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