Talk:1987 Aegean crisis

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Comment
Andreas Papandreou was not Prime Minister in 1976, it was Constantine Karamanlis. And the Sismik was not sunk.

The Hora (later Sismik-I) was the ship involved in the 1976 incident. The Greek Prime Minister at the time was the late K. Karamanlis. Andreas Papandreou was at the time the leader of the minority party PA.SO.K and indeed ask from the goverment to "sink the Hora". After a peak in the tension in the Aegean, Greece and Turkey engaged in negotiations at Berne, which resulted in a sort of “modus vivendi” between the two sides. A protocol was signed in Berne on 11 November 1976, fixing a code of conduct to govern future negotiations concerning the delimitation of the Continental Shelf in the Aegean. No tangible result was obtained, however, and the matter remained unresolved until March 1987, when a new crisis led to the brink of hostilities.

This new crisis was provoked by Turkey, when she sent the oceanographic research vessel Sismik-I,(former Hora) escorted by Turkish warships, into the Aegean in order to engage in research activities on the seabed just outside the territorial waters of the Greek islands. Subsequently, in letters exchanged between the Prime Ministers of Greece (Andreas Papandreou at the time) and Turkey (Turkut Ozal if i remember correctly), Greece reiterated her position concerning the delimitation of the Continental Shelf, the cornerstone of which is that the matter should be settled through recourse to the International Court of Justice. Although the two countries were at the edge of war, Turkey withdrawed and the condition eventually de-escalated. This position remains unaltered to this day, as does Turkey's refusal to submit her claims to the judgment of the Court. Officially there was no fire exchange at any time and as an effect there was no casualties from any side...

So who ever wrote the text about A.Papandreou being the PM on 1976, the sunken Sismik and the 'war casualties' had a very colourfull imagination....