Greek PM visits Aegean islands following Brussels summit

Yorgo Kırbaki – ATHENS

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has visited three Aegean islands off the Turkish coasts following a series of meetings with the U.S., France and Germany in which he complained about Turkey.

His first visit on June 2 was to the island of Kos, across the Turkish tourism hub Bodrum. His agenda was the issue of immigrants at a local council meeting. Thanking the Greek Coast Guards, Mitsotakis said, “They are guarding Greece and the EU. We have a solution to the migration issue.”

He, then, went to the island of Astipalea, which was militarized by Athens in a decision contrarian to the 1947 Paris Agreement.

The Greek premier’s third stop was the island of Pserimos.

Uploading a photo of a giant Greek flag painted on the rocks of the island, Mitsotakis tweeted, “The blue of Aegean meets with the blue of the flag,” with a resemblance to the Greek flag, which is in blue and white colors.

The Greek media published photos of the premier talking with local police officers.

State-run TV broadcaster ERT named the visits to the islands “meaningful,” at a time when the “tension between Greece and Turkey is rising.”

Mitsotakis firstly complained about Turkish jets flying over the Aegean Sea on May 16, at a meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden.

Last week, he continued his complaints about Turkey in Brussels in an extraordinary EU leaders’ meeting.

He was alleged to make a presentation to German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, as he had done to Biden, with Turkey’s “Blue Homeland” map, a map showing the Turkish realm of authority on the seas.

Greece accuses Turkey of flying fighter jets on the Greek islands, an allegation denied by Ankara.

After the meeting, the Greek media highlighted that Mitsotakis had the “full support of France and Germany” over his remarks about Turkey.