Following closely the official rhetoric and strategy of Ankara regarding the Greek island of Kastellorizo, Turkish media target the small island and set up a scenery reminiscent of the 1996 serious military Imia crisis.
In recent days, Turkish television networks have been in Kas, on the Turkish coast opposite Kastellorizo, and with constant responses and live connections are trying to convey to the Turkish public opinion a climate of threat from Greece, presenting the island as a…”cut-off rock” that Greece has illegally(sic) militarized to put its hand on their “Blue Homeland”.
Turkish journalists, with live links on Turkish Coast Guard boats, approach the maritime border between the two countries, broadcasting live images from Kastellorizo, with war-related rhetoric, sometimes accompanied by Ottoman-era hymns. Yesterday, a journalist of the A Haber network, in a live connection, referring to the Greek military presence, broadcasted footage of the relevant activity and showed Greek soldiers patrolling the waters around Kastellorizo.
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#ÖzelHaber#AHaber Yunan komandoları görüntüledi
Yunan askerleri Meis adası çevresinde devriye geziyor pic.twitter.com/YTll8jZbbS
— A Haber (@Ahaber) September 8, 2020
The general idea is that Turkey seeks to create the feeling in the public opinion of both Turkey and abroad, that Kastellorizo is a rock that can not have 40.000 square kilometers of continental shelf. It essentially aims to cut the island off from Greece.
At the same time, the tensions are expected to increase dangerously in the next period, if the publication of Yeni Safak is verified, according to which a new NAVTEX will be issued, from 13 to 25 September, in an area that will reach 6nm from Kastellorizo.
