Greek military analysts believe Turkey is raising tensions in the Aegean Sea because it found itself cornered on the Syrian front. According to their analysis, Turkey is becoming more aggressive against Greece, as its ambitions in Syria have been railed back after the US and Russia have abandoned Erdogan in the east.

They added, however, that Turkey would refrain from any military action against Greece in the Aegean, as the Greek military has a strong presence on the islands. As they stress, the military capacity on the islands was at 17% when the current government took office, but has now reached 48%, which is a serious deterrent for any military actions on the part of Turkey.

They estimate that Erdogan will more likely attempt to initiate an intervention in the region of Cyprus in June when the energy exploration of TOTAL is scheduled to commence. They added that the military capacity of Turkey has been seriously depleted after the failed military coup. “Most of the Turkish pilots in the Aegean are young, as the veterans have been withdrawn”, they say.

Meanwhile, Defence Minister Panos Kammenos told reporters on the sidelines of the talks in a parliamentary committee talks that 95 out of the 100 immigrants entering Greece were economic migrants. Mr. Kammenos added the assignment of Nikos Filis on the defence spending committee did not concern him at all.