Insulae

Walking through Athens on a recent sunny summer afternoon, I encountered some children and adults hanging laundry on a makeshift clothesline in the National Garden. Later I spot another refugee sleeping in the shade of a 3-foot shrub on the sidewalk near the University of Athens. 

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar claimed on Saturday that Greece is violating international law by "arming" islands in the Aegean and called on his Greek counterpart to demilitarize them, according to statements given to state-run news agency Anadolu earlier in the day.

The head of Greece's Earthquake Planning and Protection Organisation (EPPO), Geology Professor Efthimios Lekkas, responded to the assertion of SYRIZA MP Yannis Tsironis that the island of Kastelorizo is "as Greek as can be" but is "not in the Aegean Sea" but rather in the Eastern Mediterranean.

More than 12,000 migrants and refugees on Greece's Aegean islands are crammed into facilities designed to hold up to 5,000 people, the regional governor for the northern Aegean, Christiana Kalogirou, told Skai TV on Wednesday, adding that existing conditions "do not match up with our values."

The Aegean Regatta, the leading offshore sailing race in the Aegean Sea, is back once again from August, 19 to August 26, 2017, traveling to the beautiful islands of Patmos, Astypalaia, Nisyros and Rhodes.

The Greek Minister of Shipping declared that Greece is working on development plans for certain uninhabited islands that have the potential to support economic activity.

Insisting that his government will never betray its commitment to social cohesion, Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras reiterated Tuesday that islands of the eastern Aegean will be exempt from a value-added tax hike introduced as part of the country's bailout commitments, as they are the ones, he said, that have borne the brunt of the ongoing migrant crisis.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras on Tuesday announced a series of measures regarding eastern Aegean Greek islands during an address from the island of Nisyros.

"That's it. I'm coming back to İzmir to settle here and nothing you say or write will dissuade me," said a friend after I wrote that "white Turks" should think twice before settling in İzmir. "Besides, shame on you for trying to stop us as you flaunt your new-found Aegean hedonism with selfies in vineyards, beaches, sails, luncheons with girls and exhibitions on your Facebook account."

The Aegean Sea is among the 5 sun-soaked archipelagos sure to set off wanderlust, according to Virtuoso Traveler magazine, published by the largest luxury vacation network in the world, Vistuoso.