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This week the Greek government has prepared itself to face challenges from Turkey, which is freely flying military planes in the Aegean Sea over Greek territory. The dual-sided relations are very tense, because of the constant violations of the space borders and because of an article, which came out last week in a Turkish governmental newspaper, which announced the beginning of several searches for oil fields in the Aegean Sea, southeast of the Greek island Kastelorizo near to Cyprus. According to the article the Turkish State Oil Company will start searching the sea region outside the Turkish economic zone in the Aegean and near Cyprus.

Experts expressed their opinion that the Turkish decision is indicative of the fact that it “does not have any inhibitions to turn its implausible behavior into state laws.” Greek foreign minister Dora Bakoyanni, who was visiting Crete yesterday said that “Greece is dealing with the situation with confidence and is staying calm by always referring to international right laws.” “The limits, within which we are looking for a solution of the Cyprian problem are the decisions of the UN’s security council and the principals and values of the EU,” stressed the Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlis in his speech during the anniversary celebration of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.

Factors, which are creating additional tension between the two countries are also the expected report of the Turkish integration in the EU. The country is supposed to sign an agreement about the illegal emigration and it is expecting the evaluation for its reform progress. The Greek Foreign Ministry noted that strengthening EU’s borders in the FRONTEX program, Greece’s demands for Turkey and the EU to sign an agreement regarding the return of emigrants, and Greece’s warning that it will freeze one more negotiation chapter for Turkey’s entrance in the EU (already eight chapters have been frozen due to the Cyprian problem), are additional reasons for the tension between the two countries.