A few days after the large interdisciplinary military exercise carried out by the Turkish Armed Forces in the Eastern Mediterranean, Ankara accuses Greece of conducting military drills in the sea area between Pserimos and Agathonisi in the SE Aegean, which it claims are illegal.

“Greece is conducting military exercises with the soldiers it has stationed on our islands” is the headline of an article in the Sozcu newspaper, which repeats the consant narrative about Turkish islands and islets, which Greece has purportedly illegally occupied.

“Greece is preparing conduct live fire exercises on our islands that it occupied in the Aegean”, the article points out. The piece claims Greece has occupied 18 Turkish islands in the Aegean and two islets, underlining that despite the agreements its has stationed troops on 16 islands, “continuing to provoke”.

Retired Colonel and former Secretary General Umit Yalim of the Ministry of National Defence told Sozcu that Turkey should officially react to the Greek exercises, even with a complaint to NATO.

Yalim, who regularly writes on the website of the Turkish-21st Century Strategic Studies Institute, which is considered the official think tank of the Turkish government, asks the Turkish authorities: “Will the Greek ambassador be summoned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs?” Will there be a warning to Greece? Will Turkish naval forces take action in the region?”