Sözcü: Greece's North Aegean islands "belongs to Turkey"

"The sovereignty of the islands of the North Aegean belongs to Turkey," argues retired Turkish colonel Ümit Yalım in a report published in the opposition Kemalist and nationalist newspaper Sözcü.

Ümit Yalım served as the secretary general of Turkey's Ministry of Defence from 2009 to 2010. His statements and publications have continuously cultivated false claims of the Greek islands being disputed sovereignty and of grey areas in the Aegean Sea.

Ümit Yalım said: "There are 20 islands and two islets under the sovereignty of Turkey that have been occupied since 2004. The mayor of Istanbul is a Turkish citizen, and the mayor of the islands (i.e. Principality of Istanbul), Erdem Gül, is also a Turkish citizen, but this is not the case in Izmir, Aydin and Mugla, where the mayors of the metropolitan municipalities are Turkish citizens, but the mayors of the islands are Greek citizens. The Republic of Turkey is ruled by two presidents, Erdogan and Mrs. Katerina [Sakellaropoulou]."

"Our lands in the west of Turkey are not ruled by Ankara but by Athens."

"When you talk about these things, someone says, 'We own these islands, but the right to use them has been given to Greece.' They can't say that. The islands that have been granted the right of use are the islands of Thassos, Samothraki, Limnos, Lesvos, Chios, Chios, Samos, Ikaria, Psara and Agios Efstratios in the North Aegean. Most people don't know and call Limnos, for example, a Greek island. No, they are not, the islands of Limnos, Lesbos and Chios belong to the Republic of Turkey, as does the island of Samos. We only gave the right to use them, the ownership and sovereignty of these islands remained with the Republic of Turkey."

READ MORE: Turkish claims on demilitarising the Aegean Islands via Treaty of Lausanne are fake: Here's why.