Turkey: The new challenge north of Crete and the necessary strengthening of the Greek Navy

It seems that it has decided to promote its presence even in its marine areas, where it has so far avoided raising claims, as the new challenge north of Crete proved yesterday (02.2025). Turkey has sent a message that its fleet is now everywhere and is directly questioning the sovereign rights of Greece, in all maritime zones, except national territorial waters 6 miles from the Greek coast in the Aegean Sea. CORVERSE The area in which Ankara, north of eastern Crete, chose this time, is not included in the illegal Turkish memorandum, but this did not prevent neighbors from sending corveta, which reached a distance of 10 miles from the two research vessels “Ievoli Relume” and “NGWorker” . The new challenge The fact that it is the corvette “Bartin” aged over 50 years, the oldest large surface unit available to the neighbor’s fleet shows that Ankara does not intend, at least for the moment, to escalate the challenge given that it has been rushed since the first frigate of the Navy. However, the Turkish corvette rushed in the morning to send a message to the two research ships via radio to the emergency frequency on VHF channel 16. CORVERSE The message said that the two ships were illegally moving into an area outside of Greek jurisdiction and called on them to stop underwater cable laying operations. Research vessels, flagged Italy, continued their course on the area for which the Navy has already issued Navtex, while no other units of the Turkish fleet are found in the wider area. The incident in Casso The scene Turkey is attempting to set up does not seem to refer to what happened last July a “breath” from the coast of Kasos, when it sent the region a strong naval strike force consisting of five large surface units, which not only approached but also attempted to prevent the same Italian research “Ievoli Relume”. Then Athens decided not to follow the neighbors in the escalation index and chose to respond by mobilizing a smaller number of units, knowing that any jerk reaction movement can bring the opposite of the desired result. Although Turkey has continued to argue that it wants to maintain the “quiet waters”, it does not omit at every opportunity to repeat its claims in all sea zones, according to the doctrine of the “Blue Country”. It is now a question of what is to be done if the Greek side decides to continue its investigations east of Crete and in the area where in summer Turkey has shown that it is determined to block ships in their work to establish underwater cables for electrical connection with Cyprus. The aid for the Greek Fleet Only by chance is that Ankara is constantly investing in its warship, as OnAlert.gr has already mentioned, with continuous construction of new ships, while in Athens, despite the pressure of the Navy, decisions are delayed both for all fleet modernisation programs and for the acquisition of new surface units and submarines. In any case, the cornerstone for the defence of the country and especially for the defence of its sovereign rights is primarily the Navy. With its units to be the ones to proceed with a flag display but also a power projection with a stable presence in the areas of Greek interests, where the Air Force can only pass and the Land Army cannot even approach. Thus, the argument is reinforced that only numerous and powerful A fleet consisting of new units equipped with modern means and weapons can set up a shield of protection either in any research or in any floating drilling drill that will undertake the extraction of hydrocarbons and of course around the disputed islands of Archipelago. At a time when Athens “runs” the process of exploiting the productive resources around Crete. Even if the “soft waters” are preserved in the Aegean, it is assumed that it is a matter of time before Turkey’s claims are passed on the field with Ankara betting in the coming years on its enhanced naval force. Source: OnAlert.gr – Reportage: Kostas Sarikas