A Greek ship was chased out of the area of Farmakonisi by Turkish ships, media in Turkey reported on Wednesday, according to Sigma’s correspondent in Istanbul.
Turkish media reported that the country’s port authority communicated the incident to a warship in the area.
The port authority said that the Greek port authority was allegedly in Turkey’s waters.
According to media reports, more Turkish ships are awaiting in the Imia and Alikarnassos area, while a Greek port authority ship is in the Kalolymnos area.
The islets in the Aegean have been a source of contention between Turkey and Greece, as Ankara claims the islands are in Turkish waters.
Tensions have risen between Athens and Ankara over the past few weeks, with Turkish ships chasing Greek ships away.
A dispute between Greece and Turkey over the islets arose after the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 was signed.
In the treaty Turkey ceded Ottoman Empire territory to Greece and Italy – which at the time had de facto control over territory in the area.
Reference to grey-zones
The Lausanne Treaty made reference to grey-zones, which Imia belongs to, but both countries have interpreted the treaty in a different manner.
In article 12 of the treaty it is stated: “Except where a provision to the contrary is contained in the present Treaty, the islands situated at less than three miles from the Asiatic coast remain under Turkish sovereignty.”
Article 15 states that Turkey renounces all rights and title whatsoever over respecting territories situated outside the three-mile frontier and the islets that are dependent to the Dodecanese.
Greece has maintained that the Treaty precludes any Turkish claim to territories outside the three-mile boundary, and that the criteria of dependency should be interpreted in a wide sense as covering the whole Dodecanese area.
However, Turkey has maintained that the grey-zones in the treaty need to be interpreted in a narrow sense, and that formations, such as Imia are part of the grey-zone, which the treaty has left undecided.
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