Turkish Chief of General Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar on January 29 accompanied by the commanders of Turkey’s land, naval and air forces sailed on a missile gunboat around the islets of Kardak / İmia. On the following day, Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos took a helicopter trip over the same location.
In 1996, the dispute over the territorial affiliation of the two rocky islets of Imia in the Dodecanese archipelago in the Aegean Sea led to a crisis in relations between Greece and Turkey.
The communist parties of Greece and Turkey respond to these attempts which try to resurrect the crisis at the Aegean Sea. Communist Party of Greece (KKE) released a statement calling for a "Common struggle of the workers in Greece and Turkey against bourgeois classes".
Following KKE, Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) released a statement responding to the visits with military implications by authorities from Greece and Turkey.
"The Aegean Sea will be an arena of fraternity and solidarity under working class rule. The bourgeois politicians of Turkey and Greece are trying to turn the Kardak islets in Aegean see into an international crisis topic between the two countries once more like they did 21 years ago. A few days ago, probably as a reprisal to the rejection of a request for the extraction of eight Turkish soldiers who had appealed to the Greek government for asylum after the 15 July coup attempt, Turkey’s Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar and army commanders visited Kardak with a military boat. Right after that, Greek Minister of Defense Panos Kammenos visited Kardak by air," said the statement.
"We know that the bourgeoisie of both countries try to take the attention of working people to Turkish/Greek tension and provoke issues whenever they have a hard time within their countries. In addition, the bourgeoisie of both countries cultivates expansionist tendencies when appropriate. The membership of Turkey and Greece to NATO and their relation to the tactics of imperialism over the Aegean Sea do not pose an obstacle against those nationalist provocations. However, the working class of Turkey and Greece is determined to fail this game and turn the Aegean Sea into a fraternity and collaboration sea by cleansing it from imperialist powers under socialist rule," the statement read.
