Athens accuses Ankara of ‘guiding a migrant boat into Greek waters’

INA-  SOURCES

Yesterday, Tuesday, Greek port police released a video recording showing a rubber dinghy laden with migrants sailing between two Turkish coastguard ships while they were “trying to direct it into Greek waters” off the island of Lesbos.

Greece regularly accuses its neighbor Turkey of allowing boats loaded with migrants to sail from its coast to take them to Greek waters, in violation of the March 2016 agreement in which Ankara pledged to stop illegal immigration from its territory to Europe in exchange for financial aid from the European Union.

The Greek coast guard said in a statement that the video showed “the Turkish coast guard ships carrying out dangerous maneuvers to direct the boat into Greek waters” off the island of Lesbos with the aim of “illegally bringing it” into Greece.
 
The Greek coast guard rarely publishes such photos.
 
The statement quoted Greek Navy Minister Yiannis Plakiotakis as saying that “Turkey, once again, behaved like a (pirate state) in the Aegean, violating its obligations towards the European Union.”
 
And only a few hours after the coast guard released the video, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis again accused Turkey of “exploiting” the immigration issue, in a statement he made after meeting his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte, who is on an official visit to Athens.