Italian and Turkish fishermen clashed in the Mediterranean

A report from the fleet says that crew members threw rocks and smoke cartridges at Italian ships during an incident north of an unidentified Turkish Cypriot ship.

One of the Turkish ships also collided with an Italian ship and slightly damaged it, the military added.

It is not yet clear who caused this confrontation.

An Italian navy ship patrolling a nearby helicopter during the NATO Sea Guardian operation launched its helicopter. A Turkish Coast Guard patrolman also responded to the incident.

They “took action against the Turkish ships to encourage them to stop” and aggravated the situation, the Italian navy said.

One of the tasks of Operation Sea Guardian is to maintain maritime security and freedom and to fight against terrorism. Both Turkey and Italy are members of NATO.

Michelle Giacalone, one of the Italian ships, was “stoned by a dozen Turkish ships” and even “moronic,” its owner, Luciano Giacalone, told the ANSA news agency.

According to him, such incidents have occurred before, “at least never on such a scale.”

Last month, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a “dictator”, and Ankara said the description was “completely obscene and vulgar”.

As a result of this incident, the Turkish Foreign Ministry summoned the Italian Ambassador to Ankara.

In recent years, Turkey has come under fire from the European Union for its operations in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Cyprus, with the discovery of large natural gas resources in the eastern Mediterranean.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey sent its forces, which occupied the northern third of the island, in response to a coup aimed at the island’s accession to Greece.

Ankara does not recognize the Republic of Cyprus, which is a member of the EU, but, unlike all other countries, it has recognized the derivative declared by the Turkish Cypriots in Northern Cyprus.