Turkey-Greece tensions, Greek minister comes back

Turkey's coastal guard has banned Greek Defence Minister Tïi from approaching several islands opposed in the Aegean Sea.

According to the Turkish Interior Ministry, the coast guards warned Minister Panos Kammenos, who had addressed Kardak Islands, or Imya, aboard a motto, to place a flower wreath in the memorial dedicated to three Greek soldiers who died during the islands crisis in 1996.

Following the warning, the boat on which the Greek minister was on came out of Turkish territorial waters, without further incidents, the ministry added. Turkish Interior Minister Sulejman Soylu said, meanwhile, that the coast guards had done what was needed.

The islands, which Turkey recognises by the name of Kardak, while Greece Imya, are some uninhabited rocks in the Aegean Sea, positioned between the Greek island of Dodecanese and the shores of southwestern Turkey.

A decades-long dispute between Turkey and Greece over the uninhabited islands in the Aegean placed the two countries on the brink of an armed conflict in 1996, when Ankara and Athens sent sea forces to two neighbouring islands as a sign of an expected confrontation.

The two countries then withdrew troops after the diplomatic pressure of the United States.