Turks conduct military exercise in Greek territorial waters

A Greek military vessel pursued a Turkish military patrol after the later had engaged in a military exercise in Greek territorial waters.

The Turkish military patrol boat fired shots early Friday morning in the area around the eastern Aegean island of Farmakonisi, the Greek defense ministry said.

According to government sources Turkish authorities had issued a Navtex notifying of their intent to conduct a military exercise in the Aegean but Greek authorities issued their own Navtex rejecting the Turkish notification saying it was invalid because it covered Greek territorial waters.

The Greek gunboat Nikiforos was immediately sent to the area to monitor the Turkish ship until it left the area.

The incident occurred after a recent flurry of Turkish violations of Greek airspace and increased tensions between Athens and Ankara, which were further fuelled last month when the Greek Supreme Court refused to extradite eight Turkish servicemen to Turkey for their alleged role in the botched coup attempt in the neighbouring country in July.