Agathonisi

The Turkish Foreign Ministry reopened the issue of a "Turkish minority" in Thrace, northeastern Greece, again on Friday and urged Athens to safeguard its rights. 

The Regional Authority of the Southern Aegean, the Soft Energy Applications Laboratory, the Center for Technological Research in Piraeus and the University of West Attica on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at the creation of a roadmap for the transformation of 10 remote Aegean islands into "smart islands" via state-of-the-art networking technology.

Greek fishermen on the Dodecanese chain of islands in the southeastern Aegean say they are being harassed by Turkish Coast Guard vessels escorting Turkish fishing boats into Greek territorial waters.

The Economy and Development Ministry has announced funding to the tune of 3 million euros for islands in the southeast and northern Aegean that receive migrant and refugee inflows.

The money, drawn from national and European funds, will be used to cover waste management needs, which have increased drastically due to the increased arrivals of migrants and refugees.

One hundred refugees and migrants were rescued by the Greek coast guard and the European Union's border  agency Frontex in the eastern Aegean at dawn on Sunday. 

A sailing boat with 73 refugees and migrants on board was intercepted by a coast guard vessel in the sea area between the Dodecanese islands of Leros and Leipsoi in the southeastern Aegean Tuesday.

According to reports, the boat was towed to Leros, while two men, an Italian and a Ukrainian, were arrested on people-smuggling charges.

Fifteen people, including at least five children, drowned on Saturday when the small boat they were travelling on capsized in the Aegean Sea, Greek coast guard officials said.

The incident occurred off Greece's Agathonisi island, which is close to the Turkish coast. The identity and nationality of the victims was not immediately known.

Greece's coast guard said on Saturday the bodies of 14 people have been recovered from the sea off a Greek island in the eastern Aegean following the sinking of a suspected migrant smuggling boat.

A massive search and rescue operation was underway to locate four others believed missing.

In a letter to his European Union counterparts, Greece's ambassador to Turkey, Kyriakos Loukakis, has asked them to abstain from attending the closing ceremony of the Denizkurdu 2017 (Seawolf) naval exercise.

Turkish media published excerpts of the letter, dismissing it as Greek "propaganda" to the Europeans.

Turkish aeroplanes and helicopters illegally entered Greece’s airspace 141 times on May 15th, the Hellenic National Defence General Staff reported.

According to Greek press reports, 20 Turkish F-16, 5 CN-235 maritime surveillance aircraft and 19 helicopters entered the Athens flight information region (FIR) without submitting a flight plan.