Seas

There can be no doubt that we are confronted with a new refugee crisis.

That is the view of Greek authorities which are closely monitoring migrant flows toward the Greek islands from the Turkish coasts but also at the Evros boarder crossing.

As Turkish jets continued to violate Greek air space over the Aegean Tuesday, Greek defense sources played down reports that Turkey's Defense Minister Hulusi Akar flew over the Aegean Sea in a jet trainer.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has appeared in a photograph with a map that depicts nearly half of the Aegean Sea and an area up to the eastern coast of Crete as belonging to Turkey.

The photograph is of Erdogan signing the visitors' book at the National Defense University in Istanbul, where he attended an event over the weekend.

New alliances are being forged on the Greek island of Alonissos to bolster the protection of the National Marine Park, an important habitat for the endangered Mediterranean monk seal, among other species.

The Bosphorus strait connecting the Black Sea with the Marmara Sea was closed to transit traffic in both directions for about seven hours while the giant deep-water drilling rig, Scarabeo 9, passed through.

Turkey's technopark in Izmir, country's first research and development (R&D) and business center in the Aegean region, provided $60 million export return with its high-tech products.

Turkish fighter jets violated Greek air space over the Aegean on Monday, according to Greek military authorities. 

An Iranian government spokesman says the oil aboard an Iranian tanker pursued by the US has been sold to an unnamed buyer.

The Adrian Darya, previously known as the Grace 1, carries 2.1 million barrels of crude, worth some $130 million. 

With temperatures set to reach up to 38 degrees Celsius on Friday in parts and strong winds forecast for much of the country, authorities were on alert for a heightened risk of wildfires. 

Tunç Soyer, the mayor of the Aegean province of İzmir, has announced that the city's metropolitan municipality will start a reforestation campaign for burned forest areas in the province following devastating fires that broke out in two districts.