The new director of the Hellenic Foundation for European & Foreign Policy, in an interview with the newspaper ta NEA on 18 December 2023, said, among other things, "It is unacceptable for Turkey to dispute territories with population (islands), but what is the point of talking about uninhabited islands?"
This question is invalid in reality, since we are not discussing with Ankara our uninhabited islands, which belong to Greek territory.
What is in force in the legislation of our country so that we do not forget what we know
In the Greek territory there are inhabitable and uninhabitable islands, islets and islets, all of them belong to the state, and are guarded for the external borders by the Greek Armed Forces.
This is stated in the laws and the Constitution of the Greek state, which prohibit the bargaining of an inch of air, sea and land space.
The five islets/islands that the Turks have their eye on in the Dodecanese
The Turkish leadership, Foreign Ministry and Defence Ministry constantly remind us of the demilitarization of the islands of the Eastern Aegean, along with the prohibition of extending Greek territorial waters to 12 miles, drawing the threat of military intervention, because that is what it is all about.
At the same time, the same Turkish authorities keep talking, as does Erdogan, about a number of islands/shallow islets that are under dispute, which further dynamizes the situation.
Turkey has chosen among hundreds of islets the rocky islet of Nera, the islet of Pita and the islet of Safonidi in the Dodecanese, to threaten us for their ownership, all of them uninhabited.
Nera or Neronisi is a rocky islet in the Dodecanese which is located north of Agathonisi, opposite the small port of Katholiko. Together with the rock islet Glaros or Katsagani, it is the largest of Agathonisi.
Pitta or Pita is an uninhabited Greek rocky islet in the Dodecanese, 9 km north-northeast of Kalymnos. It is located 2 km northwest of Kalolimnos, while Imia is a similar distance to the southeast of Kalolimnos.
Safonidi or Safonidi or Agios Nikolaos is a rocky islet of the Dodecanese islands, located southwest of Kalymnos near the rocky islet of Nera and has an area of 0.155 sq km.
Kandelioussa is an island in the Dodecanese. It is located west of Nisyros. It has an area of 1,363 sq km and is uninhabited. Administratively it belongs to the municipality of Nisyros.
Four of the Five we see that belong to the Dodecanese complex, and are close to the wider area of Imia, where in 1996 we had the well-known events with Turkey.
"Greece has landed on 25 of the 153 islands of disputed sovereignty. It violated the treaties, invaded, raised the flag, built outposts and militarized them," the Turkish news bulletin HALK TV reported months ago.
Ankara has estimated that "153 islands, islets and rocky islets do not belong to Greece" as Manolis Kostidis reported.
There are many reports in the Turkish media about the "grey zones" in the Aegean, and on the occasion of Greek reports, they "encircle" the island of Zourofa or Ladoxera.
"The neighboring country has "drawn" 13 gray zones in the Aegean Sea and Crete, in which 152 islands and islets are listed, which according to Ankara have not been given to Greece through the Treaties and primarily the Treaty of Lausanne", this is the official Turkish narrative, which has not changed a single bit despite Erdogan's visit to Athens.
The Turkish regime not only wants to impose its illegal, according to international law, "Blue Homeland" and to seize the Greek EEZ, but probably seeks to occupy Greek territory, which it considers since 1996 as "grey", with the aim of presenting it to millions of Turkish citizens as a continuation of the victories of the Turkish state.
If the neighbours dare to do anything, they will find the Greeks against them in an overwhelming majority, and everyone should know this.
