A latest maritime incident near the Imia rock islets was reported on Thursday in the eastern Aegean, after Greek fishermen from nearby Kalymnos charged that a Turkish coast guard crew threatened them by pointing a machine gun in their direction while they were operating at sea.
The owner of the fishing boat, Konstantinos Saroukos, said the Turkish craft turned its forward-mounted heavy machine gun toward the Greek vessel during the encounter.
“He turned the machine gun on us — a .50-calibre gun mounted on the bow — and pointed it directly at us. This happens every day in our waters. In the Imia area, we are constantly being harassed,” Saroukos said.
Video footage recorded by the fishermen appears to show the Turkish vessel maneuvering at very close distance. The fishermen claim that the vessel withdrew once its crew realized they were being filmed.
Despite repeated incidents, Greek fishermen in the area say they remain determined to continue working in what they describe as Greek territorial waters, insisting they will not abandon the fishing grounds around Imia.
The Imia crisis remains one of the most sensitive flashpoints in Greek-Turkish relations. Ankara at the time re-christened the two islets as “Kardak” and continues to use that name today.
From the Greek perspective, the Imia islets are part of Greek sovereignty under international treaties that transferred the Dodecanese islands from Italy to WWII victor Greece in 1947. Greece maintains that sovereignty over all nearby islets and rocks is clearly established and not subject to dispute under international law.
The crisis escalated dramatically in January 1996 when both Greece and Turkey deployed military and naval forces to the area, bringing the two NATO allies to the brink of armed confrontation. The episode ended with a US-mediated de-escalation, but the underlying dispute over “grey zones” in the Aegean has persisted in Turkish policy discourse since then.
Athens consistently rejects the notion of disputed sovereignty over Imia, arguing that Ankara’s claims amount to attempts to challenge established borders in violation of international treaties and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Since the 1996 crisis, the Imia area has remained a frequent site of friction, particularly involving coast guard vessels and fishing activity, with Greece viewing such incidents as part of a broader pattern of pressure in the eastern Aegean.
