Even though NATO has deployed a number of navy vessels in the Aegean Sea, in order to control the human trafficking of refugees from Turkey to Greece, Turkey has refused to allow the navy vessels from entering its territorial waters acording to the French news agency.
The agency cites diplomatic sources from Brussels who reveal that Turkish authorities have rejected the requests for deployment made by the German command of the NATO mission in the Aegean while this claim has been confirmed by a second diplomatic source.
The first source underlined that this problem was known from “the start” and further revealed that Turkey requests the German commander, Rear Admiral Jörg Klein to travel to Ankara and outline the area where the NATO vessels will be deployed.
Moreover, the same source confirms that in spite of the assurances of Greek and German officials, Turkey appears to have little to no interest in receiving refugees rescued by NATO during the operations.
Germany: If Defense Min wanted to visit NATO mission, she would not need Turkish permission
In the meanwhile, the spokesperson of Germany’s Defense Minister Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen denied the reports that claimed her request to land on Mytilene as part of her scheduled visit to NATO mission in the Aegean Sea was rejected by Turkey.
As he said, “if the minister wanted to visit the German frigate ‘Bonn’, she would not need to get Turkey’s permission”.
He also stressed that “no scheduled visit was canceled”, since the minister planned to visit the ship when the mission would begin. “There were many (possible) dates. Sunday is only one of them” he clarified
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