ANKARA, 24 April 2005 — Turkish and Greek gunboats briefly faced off again yesterday near an uninhabited islet in the Aegean Sea, in a new flare-up of a dispute that came close to starting a war in 1996, Anatolia news agency reported. It was the second incident in less than two weeks between the two neighbors, who are officially allies within NATO but have a long history of disputes over territorial rights and their boundaries in the Aegean.
Quoting Turkish Foreign Ministry officials, Anatolia said a Turkish Coast Guard vessel had been dispatched to deal with two Greek trawlers that had entered Turkish waters. Greece responded by sending two gunboats to the scene, the semi-official agency said. The vessels finally returned to their respective ports after several hours.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul, questioned by journalists, described the incident as “nothing”, according to the NTV television channel. Greek Junior Foreign Minister Evripides Stylides warned that “such incidents do not facilitate Turkey’s entry to the European Union,” when he addressed a press conference yesterday at the end of a meeting of Black Sea countries at Komotini, northern Greece.
Meanwhile, Turkish authorities have banned the traditional Maori haka war dance from ceremonies marking the 90th anniversary of the ill-fated World War I Gallipoli battle, deeming it “obscene”, local media reported yesterday. “Overzealous”, read the front-page headline of the daily Vatan, which condemned the decision by Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan to bar Maori performers from doing the haka at tomorrow’s ceremonies. The daily Aksam reported that Ankara “pleaded” with officials in New Zealand not to send Maori haka dancers to the Gallipoli Peninsula in northwestern Turkey.
