“Turkish Provocations Escalate Ahead of Mitsotakis-Erdoğan Meeting: Claims Over Sovereignty of Zourafa Island”[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY1XJsj_4PM[/embed]

Continuation of Turkish provocations, this time just hours before the Mitsotakis-Erdoğan Meeting in New York by the Turkish nationalist and architect of the “Blue Homeland,” retired Rear Admiral Cihat Yaycı.

This is the theorist of the blue homeland and it is not the first time he has made headlines. He was involved when Nikos Dendias referred to “Istanbul” (and not Constantinople), something he did not like!

This time, he raised a flag off the coast of Zourafa, insisting on the Turkish President’s policy of tension and scenarios reminiscent of Imia.

Yaycı, also referred to as the architect of the Turkey-Libya memorandum, appears in a video from a vessel opening a Turkish flag off the coast of Zourafa, east of Samothrace, claiming that the islet is Turkish.

“Let us not leave this place unguarded, let us protect it! Whoever cannot say that the island of Zourafa is Turkish is not a Turk,” he says.

“The place you cannot go is not yours! You cannot protect the Blue Homeland by saying ‘The Blue Homeland is ours’ and not be present in the Blue Homeland! The claim of the Blue Homeland can only be made by being present here, hunting, traveling with ships and boats, in other words, showing full presence!” Yaycı stated.

The retired Turkish officer claimed that this particular rock, near Samothrace, is a source of oil and natural gas.

“To prevent our silence from giving a voice to the Greeks, we are here today, September 22, 2024, on the 101st anniversary of the liberation of Imbros from Greek occupation, on the island of Zourafa, which is a rock of Imbros! It is not just an ordinary rock because the territorial waters around this island are as much as our region of Gemlik along with its villages! It is a great source of wealth with oil, natural gas, hydrocarbons, and fish!”, he declares in the video.