North Aegean islands

12 Turkish jets violated Greek national air space 24 times Thursday in the northeastern Aegean, authorities said.

There was also one mock dog fight between Greek and Turkish aircraft.

The Turkish jets - consisting of 10 armed F-16s flying in four formations, one CN-235 plane and a helicopter - also entered the Athens Flight Information Region (FIR) nine times.

The flow of refugees and illegal migrants into Greece is continuing, as 135 more arrived in the northern Aegean Greek islands over the past 2 days. Lesvos saw 54 refugees land on its shores, while 41 and 40 reached Samos and Chios, respectively.

Turkey's leading mobile phone operator Turkcell has renovated the technological infrastructure of a Greek high school on Turkey's northwestern island of Gökçeada and held an opening ceremony for it on May 17. 

Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias warned members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday to stay out of Greece’s domestic affairs saying whoever doesn’t abide with signed agreements between the EU and the OIC will “pay a price” at a European policies level.

In the latest of a series of incidents between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean Sea, Turkish survey vessel TCG Cesme is currently sailing in international waters between Greeks islands and mainland Greece, according to NAVTEX (244/17) -an international safety signal/warning information to ships- issued by the Turkish government on Wednesday.

The recent spike in Turkish provocations in the Aegean and incendiary comments emanating from Ankara are aimed at testing Greece's resolve, according to Greek analysts.

The mayors of the Aegean province of Balıkesir and its district Ayvalık have joined forces to object to an urbanization project that is underway in 19 islands on the Aegean Sea, daily Hürriyet has reported.

Tiwalde from Eritrea, a resident of the Karatepe municipality camp for refugees in the northeastern Aegean island of Lesvos, plays the violin during a concert in Mytilene, Lesvos, Thursday. The event was organized by the ART initiative, whose members for the past year have been teaching music daily to more than 60 refugee children living in the camp.

A total of 200 migrants and refugees, the majority of which were of African origin, arrived on the island of Lesvos overnight from four different spots.

Members of 19 professional and business associations on Lesvos occupied the offices of the General Secretariat of Aegean and Island Policy in Mytilene for three hours Wednesday to protest the planned revocation on January 1 of a special 30 percent discount on value-added tax rates that Lesvos and other islands enjoy.