After the incidental with Ocean Link astatine Astypalaia Tensions successful the Aegean Sea continued: Turkish sportfishing boats were spotted disconnected Syros And Tinos.
New tensions make successful the cardinal portion Aegean Seaalready successful the bosom Cyclades. Five Turkish sportfishing vessels, according to Greek sources, were spotted successful adjacent proximity to the seashore Syros And Tinoswhile being within Greek territorial waters.
We’re talking astir the courts. GUNDOGANLAR 2, ZOTI AHMET REIS 5, ERGIN BALIKCILIK A, KADIR KAPTAN 3 And AZIZ KAPTAN 1. Formally, their last destination could beryllium Maltawhere ships caput for the reddish tuna sportfishing season. However, the existent beingness disconnected the northeastern shores Syros raises superior questions.
According to available information, these vessels are not mean sportfishing trawlers with progressive gear: they are carrying special cages for transporting unrecorded tuna backmost to Turkey. On paper, everything tin beryllium explained by weather, way and technical necessity. In reality, such explanations successful the Aegean progressively sound similar a diplomatic version of the operation “we were conscionable passing by.”
According to 1 version, the crews were allegedly forced to look for temporary structure owed to adverse weather conditions astatine oversea and chose the country Cyclades arsenic a much unafraid place. However, Greek observers and islanders uncertainty this explanation, pointing retired that the situation is too akin to the already acquainted pattern: archetypal there is simply a “technical” reason, then a beingness is created, and then the absorption of the Greek services is checked.
After Ocean Link it nary longer looks similar an accident
This occurrence is particularly alarming fixed the events of caller days. Today The Athens News wrotethat a Turkish warship tried to interfere with the work of the vessel Ocean Link astatine Astypalaiademanding that the laying of the submarine cablegram beryllium stopped. The situation was stopped lone aft the involution of a Greek frigate “Adrias”who made it wide that the work was being carried retired legally and did not autumn under Turkish jurisdiction.
A time earlier Turkish media person already threatened Greece with nonstop statements similar “let’s sink the Greek ship”. And present Turkish sportfishing vessels are appearing adjacent the Greek islands, which stay successful a delicate area. Coincidence? In the Aegean Sea, such coincidences person agelong required not a romanticist content successful the weather, but mean observation.
Islanders monitoring vessel movements done maritime monitoring platforms bespeak that Turkish vessels are very adjacent to the northeastern shores Syros and within Greek territorial waters. There is simply a increasing suspicion among the section colonisation that this whitethorn not lone beryllium astir fishing, but besides astir a demonstrative testing of the boundaries of what is permissible.
Ξέρει κανείς γιατί βρίσκονται αυτή τη στιγμή τα παρακάτω τουρκικά αλιευτικά ?? στα νερά μεταξύ Τήνου και Μυκόνου;
?Akgun
?Dursunogullary
?Ergun Kard Balikc 2
?Aziz Kaptan 1
?Gundoganlar 2
Κινούνται με 1-2 κόμβους.
? MarineTraffic#Αιγαίο #Greece #Turkey #Aegean pic.twitter.com/uyRBigfdcz
— 13th Lodge of Adden (@Green_Masonry) July 1, 2025
For the islanders, this is not abstract geopolitics from TV. Turkish sportfishing disconnected the Greek seashore is straight related to the extortion of marine resources, the rights of section fishermen and the existent power of the state implicit its waters. When overseas ships softly stay adjacent the islands, the contented is nary longer conscionable astir tuna. The question is who really controls the space and however rapidly the effect mechanisms are activated.
Fish, cablegram and aged Turkish tactics
At archetypal glance, betwixt the cablegram routing Astypalaia and sportfishing vessels Syros And Tinos there is nary nonstop connection. But the governmental logic of these episodes is similar. In 1 case, the Turkish broadside is trying to situation the technical work area, successful the other, it is creating an existent beingness successful a delicate maritime zone. In some cases, the aforesaid happening is being tested: however rapidly and harshly will they react? Athens.
This tactic is for Ankara not new. Instead of 1 large crisis, a bid of small episodes are created: a warship contacts a civilian ship, the media increases the level of threats, a sportfishing fleet appears adjacent the Greek islands. Each lawsuit separately tin beryllium explained arsenic a misunderstanding. All together they look similar docket pressure.
It is particularly unpleasant that the Greek broadside again finds itself successful a situation where it has to beryllium the obvious: territorial waters are territorial waters, the submarine cablegram is civilian infrastructure, and the sportfishing vessels of a neighboring state should not beryllium turned into an instrumentality of governmental pressure. It’s surprising, of course, that successful the 21st period such things still person to beryllium said retired loud, but present we are.
While Turkish ships stay successful the area, residents Syros And Tinos The main contented becomes not lone the imaginable amerciable sportfishing activities, but besides the deficiency of constant, visible and convincing control. If surveillance exists, it indispensable beryllium visible and effective. If it is not there, this is simply a occupation not lone for section fishermen, but besides for the full system of protecting nationalist interests.
Against the inheritance of the incidental with Ocean Link and unfastened threats from the Turkish media, a caller occurrence Cyclades shows: tension successful the Aegean Sea is increasing again not done large statements by diplomats, but done factual actions connected the water. And it is precisely such “small” episodes that astir often go a δοκιμή of where the existent bounds of patience lies.
Greek (GR) · 
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