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Turkey Forces Greek FM's Plane to Circle as New Drill Ship Joins the Fray

The Greek government plane used by a foreign ministry delegation to Iraq. File photo

Turkey kept a Greek government plane in the air for at least twenty minutes on Wednesday, as a new drill ship was seen sailing south of Kastellorizo in a clear escalation of the country’s provocative behavior.
Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias and a delegation of officials were aboard, returning to Greece from a visit to Iraq.
State television ERT revealed that Turkish authorities refused to allow the overflight, despite the fact that all the necessary permits had been granted.
The aircraft was forced to circle in Iraqi airspace for at least twenty minutes before the approval for the overflight was eventually given.
Later, marine traffic spotters showed that a Turkish drill ship was sailing south of Kastellorizo and was passing the strait between Karpathos and Rhodes.
The ship “Kanuni” sailed from Mesrin on Turkey’s southeast coast and is reportedly headed to Istanbul, sailing through sensitive territory.
At the same time, Turkey’s Oruc Reis survey vessel continues to remain in an area within Greece’s continental shelf, causing a fresh spike in tensions with Greece.
In Athens, meanwhile, Minister of State Giorgos Ierapetritis said on Wednesday night that Greece would consider any violation of the six-nautical-mile boundary a violation of its “red lines.”
“National sovereignty is a red line; and when we say national sovereignty, we obviously mean national territorial waters, which, today, are defined at six nautical miles,” he said while speaking on Alpha television.
Demarche to Turkey
As of Thursday afternoon, the Greek Embassy in Ankara was ordered to present a demarche to the Turkish Foreign Ministry regarding Wednesday’s incident involving the government aircraft, diplomatic sources said on Thursday.
Earlier, a malfunction in the Greek government aircraft did not allow Dendias to visit Iraqi Kurdistan and Erbil, as he had originally planned.
According to diplomatic sources, the Turkish side took the initiative and provided explanations to the Greek Embassy in Ankara before the demarche was presented, attributing the incident to a technical error by the responsible Turkish agency.
The Greek Embassy in Ankara will raise the issue again, however, in order to ensure that such an incident is not repeated.

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