The U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Jonathan Shrier, and Israeli Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz were photographed in front of map showing Tenedos (Τένεδος, Turkish: Bozcaada) and Imvros (Ίμβρος, Turkish: Gökçeada) as belonging to Greece, during a meeting on Monday.
Shrier thanked the Israeli Energy Minister on Twitter “for hosting our visit today,” and “for the productive discussions of U.S.-Israeli cooperation through the Clean Energy Finance Task Force and other important regional energy security issues.”
Although Greece liberated the two islands and administered them between November 1912 and September 1921, the Western powers agreed that the islands should be handed over to the new Turkish Republic through the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne.
As per the Treaty of Lausanne, the islands should be autonomous to accommodate the then majority Greek population.
However shortly after the legislation of "Civil Law" on 26 June 1927 (Mahalli Idareler Kanunu), the rights accorded to the Greek population of Imvros and Tenedos were revoked, in violation of the Lausanne Treaty.
An open prison was also built on the island of Imvros that accommodated murderers and rapists, forcing many of the Greeks on the island to flee to Greece and abroad.
Turkey relocated colonisers from Anatolia to the two islands so that the Greek population would become a minority.
A Human Rights Watch report concluded that the Turkish government denied the rights of the Greek community on Imvros and Tenedos in violation of the Lausanne Treaty and international human rights laws and agreements.
READ MORE: FM Dendias: Greek minority of Imvros, Tenedos and Constantinople will be supported by us.