It was like today, 29 whole years ago... In the early hours of January 31, 1996, the crisis in Imia peaked, an event that brought Greece and Turkey closer to war than ever before in their modern history.
The episode falls within the context of the Greek-Turkish differences in the Aegean, which came to the fore after the Greek Revolution. Greece recognizes as its only difference with its neighbor the delimitation of the continental shelf, while Turkey raises the issues of airspace (recognizing 6 and not 10 miles), the Athens FIR, the demilitarization of the Aegean islands and, with the Imia crisis, the status of some rocky islets ("Grey Zones").
Imia (Kardak in Turkish) are two small uninhabited islets between the Dodecanese island group and the southwestern coast of Turkey. They are 3,8 nautical miles from Bodrum (Bodrum), Turkey, 5,5 nm from Kalymnos, and 2,5 nm from the nearest Greek territory, the islet of Kalolimnos.
Imia was ceded to Greece by Italy in 1947 by the Treaty of Paris, following the incorporation of the Dodecanese after the end of World War II. The Turkish state had accepted Greece's sovereignty over these islands. The questioning of the Greekness of Imia began with a naval accident that occurred on 25 December 1995. The Turks tried to apply to the occasion their own interpretation of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), by which the Dodecanese had been ceded to Italy in their entirety and not by name, and to question Greek sovereignty over some rocky islets.
The Chronicle of Crisis
December 25, 1995: The Turkish cargo ship "Figen Akat" runs aground in shallow waters near East Imia and sends out a distress signal. Its captain refuses assistance from the Coast Guard, claiming that he was in Turkish territory and that the only competent authorities are his country.
December 26, 1995: The Kalymnos Port Authority informs the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and this in turn informs the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs that if a tugboat does not intervene, the Turkish ship will be in danger.
December 27, 1995: The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs the Greek embassy that, regardless of who would undertake the rescue of the ship, there was a general issue.
December 28, 1995: Two Greek tugboats detach the Turkish truck and take it to the port of Külük, Turkey. On the morning of the same day, a Turkish fighter jet crashes in Greek territorial waters, in the area of Lesvos, after an engagement with Greek fighter jets. With Greek assistance, the Turkish pilot is rescued.
December 29, 1995: The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes advantage of the situation and issues a verbal notice in Greek, stating that the Imia islets are registered in the Mugla cadastre of the Budrum (Bodrum) prefecture and belong to Turkey.
January 9, 1996: The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs responds with delay, rejecting the communication.
January 15, 1996: Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou, who is hospitalized at "Onassis", resigns.
January 16, 1996: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, realizing the Turks' game, requests increased vigilance measures in the Imia region from the Ministry of National Defense.
January 19, 1996: The PASOK parliamentary group elects Konstantinos Simitis as new Prime Minister.
January 26, 1996: The mayor of Kalymnos, Dimitris Diakomichalis, alarmed by the fact that the Greekness of the Imias was being questioned, raises the Greek flag on one of the two islands, accompanied by the Kalymnos police chief, the priest and two residents of the island. He will later be accused by his comrades in PASOK of being the one who added fuel to the fire.
January 27, 1996: Two journalists from the newspaper "Hürriyet" in Izmir travel by helicopter to Megali Imia. They lower the Greek flag and raise the Turkish one. The entire operation is filmed and broadcast by the "Hürriyet" television channel.
January 28, 1996: The Navy patrol boat "Antonio" lowers the Turkish flag and raises the Greek one. In the evening, Greek frogmen disembark at Megali Imia, without being noticed by the Turkish warships passing by. The political order to the Greek military is to avoid any escalation of tension.
January 29, 1996: The new Prime Minister Costas Simitis, in his programmatic statements in Parliament, sends a message to Turkey that Greece will react immediately and dynamically to any provocation. Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller calls for negotiations on the status of the Aegean islets. Turkish warships violate Greek territorial waters and approach Imia. Demarches are made by Greece to the E.U. and the USA.
January 30, 1996: Prime Minister Costas Simitis has a telephone conversation with US President Bill Clinton. He expresses the Greek position that our country does not want tension, but if provoked, it will react dynamically. The government declares its readiness to withdraw the detachment, but not the Greek flag. The warships "Navarino" and "Themistocles" rush to Imia. The Turkish Foreign Minister declares that there are other islands in the Aegean with unclear legal status and does not accept the Greek proposal (withdrawal of the detachment, not the flag).
January 31 1996
00:00 A meeting is convened at the Prime Minister's office. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Theodoros Pangalos, arrives late because he is taking part in a television show.
01:40 Information arrives at the Hellenic National Defense General Staff that Turkish commandos are landing at Mikri Imia.
04:30 A Hellenic Navy helicopter takes off from the frigate "Navarino" to confirm the information. Bad weather conditions prevail.
04:50 The helicopter crew reports that they have spotted about 10 Turkish commandos with their flag. They are ordered to return to their base and while flying between the rocky islets of Pita and Kalolimnos they report a malfunction and disappear from radar. Later all three crew members, Lieutenant Commander Christodoulos Karathanasis, Lieutenant Commander Panagiotis Vlachakos and Chief Petty Officer Hector Gialopsos, will be recovered dead. Various opinions have been expressed regarding the causes of the helicopter crash. The official opinion of the Greek state was that the vessel crashed due to bad weather and the pilot's loss of orientation. However, in Greece there is a widespread view that the helicopter was shot down either by the Turkish Navy or by Turkish commandos who were on the island and that the event was concealed in order to end the crisis and prevent the two countries from being led into a generalized conflict or even war.
06:00 The Americans, through Undersecretary of State Richard Holbrooke, impose their will on both sides. "No ships, no troops, no table-flags" they declare, or in more elegant diplomatic language, the status quo ante applies. By noon on January 31, 1996, the ships, soldiers and flags had been withdrawn from Imia.
The Imia crisis had no consequences for the status of the islands. However, it gave Turkey reason to raise the issue of “Gray Zones” in the Aegean, challenging Greece’s sovereignty over several islands and putting yet another issue on the agenda of Greek-Turkish disputes. However, the Greek side never accepted the existence of such an issue, citing international treaties.
The events in Imia shook the credibility of the Greek government, especially when Prime Minister Costas Simitis thanked the Americans from the floor of Parliament for their catalytic role in de-escalating tensions.
Source: skai.gr
