An incident in which Turkish fishermen did not hesitate to fire in the air at Greek fishermen occurred on Tuesday night in the Thracian Sea, in the sea area between Thasos and Samothraki.

One of the Greek fishermen even recorded the moment when one of the Turks opened fire in the air three times while the Greek fishing boat was a short distance away.

The incident appears to have been sparked by Greek fishermen protesting against Turkish fishing vessels that had come dangerously close to the Greek coast. In a video posted on social media by a sailor aboard a trawler, he can be heard saying that the Turkish fishermen were telling the Greeks to… leave, since according to their own unlawful logic they considered themselves to be in international waters.

In another video, the same sailor shows Turkish coast guard vessels pushing back the Greek fishing boats—forcing them to retreat—while shouting: “The Turkish are chasing us inside Greece, the fishing boats, the state is nowhere to be found. Look at the audacity—they’ll sink us inside our own country.”

As reported to voria.gr by Giannis Manios, president of the Kavala Purse Seine Association and vice president of the Greek Purse Seine Union, “in recent days Turkish fishing boats have come as close as 4–6 miles from the coast of Samothraki. Tonight, a large number of Turkish vessels went out fishing again, and 20 of our boats went to protest. Our fishermen were met with insults, threats, and even gunfire into the air.”

After a few minutes, the Greek fishing boats—most of them from Kavala, along with fishermen from Thessaloniki and Halkidiki—withdrew and returned to the port of Keramoti in Kavala.