Athens sticks to low-profile responses as Ankara ups rhetoric over islets

The fallout from Ankara after the Supreme Court's decision last week not to extradite eight servicemen to stand trial in Turkey for their alleged role in the failed coup attempt in July, continued on Friday, with Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim disputing Greece's sovereignty over "130 small and large chunks of rocks in the Aegean."

Yildirim said the rocks have "no identity" and that it is not clear who they belong to, while describing Greece's stance vis-a-vis Turkey's extradition request as "disappointing."

He also took a swipe at Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos for flying over the Imia islets this week to drop a wreath to commemorate three Greek servicemen who were killed when their helicopter crashed at the height of the Imia crisis in 1996, which brought the two neighbors to the brink of war.

"Geography is fate and we cannot choose our neighbors,"...