The whole time of dramatic events
It was like today, 29 years ago … In the early morning of January 31, 1996, the crisis in the crisis culminated in Imiaan event that brought as close as ever to war in Greece and Turkey in their modern history.
The incident is part of the Greek -Turkish disputes in the Aegean, which appeared dynamically in the spotlight after the postwar regime. Greece recognizes the only difference with its neighbor the demarcation of the continental shelf, while Turkey raises the issues of the airspace (recognizes 6 and not 10 miles), the FIR Athens, the demilitarization of the Aegean Islands and the Imia Crisis status of some rocky islands (“gray zones”).
Imia (Kardak in Turkish) are two small uninhabited rock islands between the island complex of the Dodecanese and the southwestern coast of Turkey. They are 3.8 nautical miles from Bodrum (Bodrum) in Turkey, 5.5 nm. From Kalymnos and 2.5 nm. From the nearest Greek territory, the Kalolimnos island.
Imia were granted to Greece by Italy in 1947 by the Treaty of Paris, following the integration of the Dodecanese after the end of World War II. The Turkish state had accepted Greece’s sovereignty regime in these islands. The questioning of the Greekness of the Imia began with a naval accident that occurred on December 25, 1995. The Turks tried to apply their own interpretation to the Lausanne Treaty (1923), with which the Dodecanese had been granted to Italy in Italy And not nominal, and question the Greek domination of some islands.
The timing of the crisis
December 25, 1995: The Turkish cargo ship “Figen Akat” hits a shallow waters near East Imia and emits a danger signal. His master denies help from the Port Authority, claiming that he was in Turkish area and that the only responsible are the authorities of his country.
December 26, 1995: The Kalymnos Port Authority is informing the Foreign Ministry and this in turn the Turkish Foreign Ministry that if it does not intervene in a trailer, the Turkish ship will be in danger.
December 27, 1995: The Turkish Foreign Ministry informs the Greek Embassy that, regardless of who would take the rescue of the ship, there was a matter in general.
December 28, 1995: Two Greek tugs detach the Turkish truck and drive it to the port of Kouluk, Turkey. On the morning of the same day, a Turkish fighter jet crashed into Greek territorial waters in the area of Lesvos, after involvement with Greek fighters. With Greek help, the Turkish pilot is rescued.
December 29, 1995: The Turkish Foreign Ministry is exploiting the situation and engaging a verbal decoration in the corresponding Greek, which states that the Imia islands are registered in the Mougla Land Registry of Boudrum (Bodrum) and belong to Turkey.
January 9, 1996: The Greek Foreign Ministry responds with delay, rejecting the decoration.
January 15, 1996: Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who is hospitalized in “Onassis”, resigns.
January 16, 1996: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, realizing the Turks’ game and calls for increased vigilance measures in the Imia region by the Ministry of National Defense.
January 19, 1996: PASOK’s parliamentary group elects a new Prime Minister Constantine Simitis.
January 26, 1996: The Mayor of Kalymnos, Dimitris Diakomichalis, alarmed by the fact of challenging the Greekness of the Imia, raises the Greek flag on one of the two islands, accompanied by the Kalymnos Police Director, the priest and two inhabitants of the island. He will later be accused by his comrades in PASOK of being the one who threw oil into the fire.
January 27, 1996: Two journalists of the Hurriyet newspaper in Smyrna go by helicopter to Great Imia. They undermine the Greek flag and raise Turkish. The whole business is filmed and screened by the Hurriyet television channel.
January 28, 1996: The patrol of the Navy “Antoniou” lowers the Turkish flag and raises the Greek. In the evening, Greek frogs land in the Great Imia, without being noticed by the Turkish war there. The political mandate to the Greek military is to avoid any escalation of tension.
January 29, 1996: The new Prime Minister Costas Simitis, in his program statements to the House, sends a message to Turkey that in any challenge Greece will react immediately and vigorously. Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Chiller is calling for negotiations on the Aegean islands status. Turkish warfare violate Greek territorial waters and approach Imia. There are transitions from Greece to the EU. and USA.
January 30, 1996: Prime Minister Costas Simitis has a telephone conversation with US President Bill Clinton. He expresses his Greek position that our country does not want tension, but if it is caused it will react vigorously. The government says it is ready to withdraw the time, but not the Greek flag. Imia are rushing to the “Navarino” and “Themistocles” warships. The Turkish Foreign Minister states that there are other Aegean islands with a vague legal status and does not accept the Greek proposal (withdrawal of the stake, not the flag).
January 31, 1996
00:00 convening a meeting at the Prime Minister’s office. Foreign Minister Theodoros Pangalos arrives late because he is taking part in a television show.
01:40 In the GEFHA there is information that Turkish commandos are landing in Little Imia.
04:30 Helicopter of the Hellenic Navy takes off from the frigate “Navarino” to confirm the information. Bad weather is prevalent.
04:50 The helicopter crew states that it found about 10 Turkish commandos with their flag. He is ordered to return to his base and while flying between the rocky pie and Kalolimnos reports damage and is lost by the radars. Later, all three crew members, Lieutenant Christodoulos Karathanassis, Lieutenant General Panagiotis Vlachakos and the Chief Executive Gialopsos will be resolved. About the causes of the helicopter decline have been formulated. The official view of the Greek state was that the boat fell due to bad weather and loss of orientation of the pilot. However, in Greece there is a widespread view that the helicopter was dismissed either by the Turkish Navy or by the Turkish Commanders on the island and that the event was hidden in order to end the crisis and not to lead the two countries to a general conflict or conflict. Even in war.
06:00 Americans through Deputy Foreign Minister Richard Holbrook impose their will on both sides. “No Ships, No Troops, No Table-Flags” they say or in more elegant diplomatic language the status quo ante apply. By noon on January 31, 1996, ships, soldiers and flags had retired from Imia.
The Imia crisis had no consequences on the islands. However, it gave Turkey to raise the issue of “gray zones” in the Aegean, questioning Greece’s sovereignty on several islands and to raise another issue on the agenda of Greek -Turkish differences. However, the Greek side has never accepted the existence of such a matter, citing international treaties.
The events in Imia shaken the credibility of the Greek government, especially when the prime minister Kostas Simitis He thanked the Americans from the House of Representatives for their catalytic role in the decline of tension.
