Chios

A Turkish patrol boat sailed into Greek waters on Thursday and made dangerous maneuvers close to a ship belonging to the European border agency Frontex and also near a Greek fishing boat, the Shipping Ministry in Athens said.

Migration Minister Notis Mitarakis has argued that his ministry needs "flexibility" in dealing with Greece's migrant crisis since neighbouring Turkey abandoned a 2016 deal with the European Union in late February and lifted restrictions on migrants and refugees from the Middle East, Asia and Africa trying to reach the bloc via its territory.

Athens is on alert over attempts by Ankara to press a revisionist agenda, most recently by issuing navigational warnings (NAVWARNS) which were seen as an attempt to obstruct the Greek naval training exercise "Kataigida '20" that was originally scheduled to begin Monday.

All military exercises were postponed over the weekend amid concern over the spread of coronavirus.

Four Turkish fighter jets entered Greek airspace at the southeastern Aegean without submitting  flight plan on Monday afternoon, according to the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (GEETHA).

The first pair of Turkish F-16 jets flew over the islets of Oinouses at 27,000 feet at 2.57 p.m.

Just a week after the fire at the Vial migrant reception center on the eastern Aegean island of Chios on April 18, successive fires broke out in and around a camp Samos on Sunday, which, according to all indications, were due to arson.

In less than 24 hours, 27 people were detained, 21 of whom were arrested.

Scores of asylum-seekers were left homeless when a fire tore through a  camp on the Greek island of Samos, a migration ministry official said on April 27.    

"Around 200 people have been left homeless," Migration Ministry Secretary Manos Logothetis told AFP.    

There were no immediate reports of injuries.    

The resumption of Turkish drilling inside Cyprus' continental shelf by the Yavuz drillship and Ankara's behavior in the Aegean was raised at Thursday's European Union summit by both Cyprus President Nikos Anastasiades and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis despite the fact that the issue was not on the agenda.

As part of the government's plans to ease pressure at overcrowded migrant reception centers on the eastern Aegean islands, some 1,500 residents of the notoriously cramped Moria camp on Lesvos are to be transferred to the mainland on Saturday. 

A total of 10 asylum seekers were arrested and six more are wanted by Greek authorities in connection with the violence that broke out at a hotspot on the island of Chios on Saturday (April 18).

Greece remained on alert over the long Easter weekend with its coast guard and navy on standby, due to concerns that Turkey may escalate tensions either in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Aegean or at the Evros land border in order to divert attention from the domestic problems faced by Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government.