Greek FM concerned about rising tension

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

NATO allies Greece and Turkey have been at odds for years over airspace boundaries and flight procedures over the Aegean Sea, which forms the border between them, and mock dogfights between fighter jets from each side are common.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was expected to visit Athens last Sunday, but he canceled his trip at the last moment. Diplomatic sources have suggested that the Greek government’s alleged accusation over airspace violations and a European Union report regarding Turkey as a source of illegal human trafficking were the reasons behind prime minister’s last-minute cancellation.

Still, Dora Bakoyannis told The Associated Press that Turkish military jets were flying over inhabited Greek islands. "There is an increase in tension in the Aegean, which is evaluated very seriously by the Greek side," Bakoyannis suggested. "We have overflights Ğ not the usual overflights we had in the past, but overflights over inhabited islands Ğ which worries us greatly."

The minister said she intended to raise the issue with her Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutoğlu, during a meeting this weekend on the Greek island of Corfu, where foreign ministers from the 56-member Organization for Security and Cooperation Europe are meeting.

Earlier this year, Bakoyannis had warned that Greek-Turkish relations had effectively ground to a standstill after a decade of steady improvement. The two countries came to the brink of war three times between 1974 and 1996 over the Aegean and the war-divided island country of Cyprus.

Greek officials have claimed that there are about 1,500 violations by Turkish warplanes each year, but Turkey maintains it does not carry out any air space violations because it defines the area within Greece's control differently than Greek authorities.

In recent years, there was some thaw in the hostile relations between the two countries. In 2002, Greek and Turkish diplomats launched exploratory talks on their disputes. Business deals have steadily increased and include a pipeline link that will be used to carry natural gas from the Caspian Sea to western Europe.

But the Aegean has remained a source of tension. Another issue has been illegal immigration. Tens of thousands of illegal immigrants sneak into Greece each year, many heading to Greek islands from the nearby Turkish coast. In 2008, Greek authorities arrested more than 146,000 illegal immigrants.