Farmakonisi

Greek coast guard officers located and rescued 121 migrants and refugees in two separate incidents in the eastern Aegean Sea on Monday morning.

The fist incident concerned an inflatable dinghy that had sailed from Turkey and was trying to reach the northern shores of Ikaria. It was carrying 49 unidentified migrants who have been transported to Vathy on the nearby island of Samos.

Greek coast guards rescued 104 refugees and migrants in three separate operations in the eastern and southeastern Aegean in the early hours of Sunday, just as authorities are planning to transfer 570 asylum seekers from the island of Lesvos to the mainland.

Greece's Coast Guard said it rescued 26 migrants from a dinghy sailing off the small island of Farmakonisi, in the eastern Aegean, early Thursday morning.
The rescuees were transferred safely to the small island port.

Greece's Coast Guard said it rescued 49 migrants from a dinghy sailing off the northern city of Alexandroupolis early Thursday morning.
The rescuees were transferred safely to the port of Alexandroupolis where the local port authority will investigate the incident.
The coast guard did not provide details on their nationalities.

As Turkish violations of Greek airspace continued on Wednesday, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said that Greece must remain vigilant but there is no concern over an incident in the Aegean.

"Greece has never had stronger alliances than the ones it has now," he said in an interview aired on Alpha TV.

In what is seen as a response to an ongoing annual exercise by the Hellenic Navy in the Aegean, Turkish jets violated Greek national airspace 99 times on Tuesday, according to the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (GEETHA).

Forty-six of those violations were conducted by fighter jets and the other 53 by CN-235 surveillance aircraft.

Two Turkish fighter jets flew over the eastern Aegean islets of Farmakonisi, Arkii and Lipsi, the Hellenic National Defense General Staff (GEETHA) said Tuesday.

Greece's Coast Guard rescued early Thursday morning 19 migrants who were on board an inflatable dingy in the sea northeast of the islet of Farmakonisi in the eastern Aegean.
They were all transferred to the island's port, state-run news agency ANA-MPA reported.

No further details were available on the rescuees or their health. 

An accident was narrowly averted on Friday after a Turkish F-16 fighter jet reportedly harassed a Greek Super Puma helicopter, according to reports that emerged on Saturday.

The incident occurred shortly before noon south of the eastern Aegean islet of Farmakonisi as the Super Puma conducted a search for a boat carrying illegal migrants.

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.