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Imia-Kardak Crisis (Greek: Κρίση των Ιμίων, Turkish: Kardak Krizi) was a crisis between Turkey and Greece caused by a Turkish ship named "Figen Atak" getting stuck in Imia/Kardak rocks causing Turkish and Greek forces to have a dispute, leading to a crisis and brought two countries to the brink of war.
Caused controversy in the media ''who will rescue the ship''.
Figen Akat's captain asked for help from Turkey. This is where the crisis broke out. The Greeks claimed that the cliffs were in their own territorial waters and said "only we can help you". Thus, these insignificant boulders standing in the middle of the sea brought the two countries brink of war..
In fact, the main issue was not these rocks in the Aegean Sea. The Imia/Kardak rocks meant two countries struggle for domination. If Turkey had agreed to leave these reefs to Greece, the Greeks were able to claim on other pieces of rocks/islets on the Aegean Sea. Turkey's thesis was 'pieces of land remaining after the Ottoman Empire (not included in the lausanne agreement), is not determined by treaties to which belongs to Turkey.
From the public perspective, the citizens of both countries claimed that these rocks belonged to their own countries. The first movement came from the Greeks, some citizens reached the rock and planted a Greek flag here.
In response to this move, a number of Turkish journalists landed on the island by helicopter, lowered the Greek flag and planted the Turkish flag.
PS : Greek flag in the Turkish newspaper '' Hürriyet''s museum now.
The Greeks responded harshly to this. This time, they came to the rocks with their navy and surrounded them.
They re-erected their flag, so the Kardak Rocks came under the control of the Greek navy.
The landing on the island by the Greeks created a start crisis in the capital of Turkey. A security meeting was held immediately. The generals were ready to intervene. However, President Süleyman Demirel opposed this. “If a war breaks out for this reason, we cannot explain it to the Turkish nation. We cannot explain it to the world, find another way. '' Prime Minister Tansu Çiller was speaking with certainty, saying, "This soldier will go, that flag will come down". But America's attitude was harsher, they said, "Whoever shoots the first bullet will find us." Thus, Turkey could have dropped the case after the 1974 Operation in Cyprus. A solution had to be found urgently.
But when the Turkish people took to the streets, Prime Minister Tansu Çiller made his famous saying;
"We can sacrifice life, but not single pebbles"
On the evening of January 30, 1996, a very important meeting was held in the Ankara with the participation of all force commanders. Just then, Deputy Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs presented a proposal that would not come to anyone's mind. There were two rocks in the area. İnal Batu suggested that the Turkish forces should rise to the empty cliffs opposite the island surrounded by the Greeks. This was a very rational proposition, but capturing the cliffs would still be a very difficult operation. Prime Minister Tansu Çiller took the opinions of the force commanders. The generals said, "If you give orders, we will land soldiers on the island." So the button was pressed and the operation started.
Commandos first came to the military camp in Bodrum by plane. Here the plan has been revisited. It was necessary to go to the island, passing silently between many Greek ships. If anything goes wrong, the helicopter landing will be done this time as Plan B When the commandos set out in boats, helicopters started flying at the same time. A coast guard ship would dazzle the commandos, surprising the Greek forces. Sat commandos arrived on the island in secret and managed to land.
After landing there was nobody on the west island. The Turkish flag was planted on the island in a short time. Morning, was dominated by the anger and bewilderment in Greece. A handful of Turkish commandos were able to glide silently between half dozen of Greek ships and face the island encircled by the Greek navies. There was nothing to do anymore. If Greece opened fire on the Turkish commandos, it would start a war and find America against it. Upon these events, the Greek Chief of General Staff resigned. With the intervention of the USA and President Bill Clinton, soldiers from both islands withdrew and the crisis was thus ended.
The immediate military threat was defused primarily by American officials—in particular, US envoy Richard Holbrooke, working by telephone with officials of both sides during the final hours of the crisis. The Greeks and Turks did not speak directly to one another, but were responsive to Washington's assistance as an informal intermediary. Agreement was given by both sides to the United States to return to the "status quo ante"—i.e., differing views on sovereignty and no military forces on the islets. Greek and Turkish officials provided assurances to the United States that their military forces on and arrayed around the islets would be removed, with the U.S. agreeing to monitor the withdrawal.While US engagement was instrumental in defusing the crisis, the fundamental territorial issue has remained unresolved since that time.
Unfortunately, this crisis was with loses of life..
On 31 January at 1:40 am Turkish special forces SAT Commandos landed undetected on the west islet escalating the tensions. It was not until 4 hours later when the Greeks noticed this when a Greek helicopter took off at 5:30 am from the Greek frigate Navarino for reconnaissance. During the mission it crashed over the islets (some speculating due to Turkish fire), but this was concealed by both states to prevent further escalation, although three Greek officers on the helicopter were killed: Christodoulos Karathanasis, Panagiotis Vlahakos, and Ektoras Gialopsos.
Caused controversy in the media ''who will rescue the ship''.
Figen Akat's captain asked for help from Turkey. This is where the crisis broke out. The Greeks claimed that the cliffs were in their own territorial waters and said "only we can help you". Thus, these insignificant boulders standing in the middle of the sea brought the two countries brink of war..
In fact, the main issue was not these rocks in the Aegean Sea. The Imia/Kardak rocks meant two countries struggle for domination. If Turkey had agreed to leave these reefs to Greece, the Greeks were able to claim on other pieces of rocks/islets on the Aegean Sea. Turkey's thesis was 'pieces of land remaining after the Ottoman Empire (not included in the lausanne agreement), is not determined by treaties to which belongs to Turkey.
From the public perspective, the citizens of both countries claimed that these rocks belonged to their own countries. The first movement came from the Greeks, some citizens reached the rock and planted a Greek flag here.
In response to this move, a number of Turkish journalists landed on the island by helicopter, lowered the Greek flag and planted the Turkish flag.
PS : Greek flag in the Turkish newspaper '' Hürriyet''s museum now.
The Greeks responded harshly to this. This time, they came to the rocks with their navy and surrounded them.
They re-erected their flag, so the Kardak Rocks came under the control of the Greek navy.
The landing on the island by the Greeks created a start crisis in the capital of Turkey. A security meeting was held immediately. The generals were ready to intervene. However, President Süleyman Demirel opposed this. “If a war breaks out for this reason, we cannot explain it to the Turkish nation. We cannot explain it to the world, find another way. '' Prime Minister Tansu Çiller was speaking with certainty, saying, "This soldier will go, that flag will come down". But America's attitude was harsher, they said, "Whoever shoots the first bullet will find us." Thus, Turkey could have dropped the case after the 1974 Operation in Cyprus. A solution had to be found urgently.
But when the Turkish people took to the streets, Prime Minister Tansu Çiller made his famous saying;
"We can sacrifice life, but not single pebbles"
On the evening of January 30, 1996, a very important meeting was held in the Ankara with the participation of all force commanders. Just then, Deputy Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs presented a proposal that would not come to anyone's mind. There were two rocks in the area. İnal Batu suggested that the Turkish forces should rise to the empty cliffs opposite the island surrounded by the Greeks. This was a very rational proposition, but capturing the cliffs would still be a very difficult operation. Prime Minister Tansu Çiller took the opinions of the force commanders. The generals said, "If you give orders, we will land soldiers on the island." So the button was pressed and the operation started.
Commandos first came to the military camp in Bodrum by plane. Here the plan has been revisited. It was necessary to go to the island, passing silently between many Greek ships. If anything goes wrong, the helicopter landing will be done this time as Plan B When the commandos set out in boats, helicopters started flying at the same time. A coast guard ship would dazzle the commandos, surprising the Greek forces. Sat commandos arrived on the island in secret and managed to land.
After landing there was nobody on the west island. The Turkish flag was planted on the island in a short time. Morning, was dominated by the anger and bewilderment in Greece. A handful of Turkish commandos were able to glide silently between half dozen of Greek ships and face the island encircled by the Greek navies. There was nothing to do anymore. If Greece opened fire on the Turkish commandos, it would start a war and find America against it. Upon these events, the Greek Chief of General Staff resigned. With the intervention of the USA and President Bill Clinton, soldiers from both islands withdrew and the crisis was thus ended.
The immediate military threat was defused primarily by American officials—in particular, US envoy Richard Holbrooke, working by telephone with officials of both sides during the final hours of the crisis. The Greeks and Turks did not speak directly to one another, but were responsive to Washington's assistance as an informal intermediary. Agreement was given by both sides to the United States to return to the "status quo ante"—i.e., differing views on sovereignty and no military forces on the islets. Greek and Turkish officials provided assurances to the United States that their military forces on and arrayed around the islets would be removed, with the U.S. agreeing to monitor the withdrawal.While US engagement was instrumental in defusing the crisis, the fundamental territorial issue has remained unresolved since that time.
Unfortunately, this crisis was with loses of life..
On 31 January at 1:40 am Turkish special forces SAT Commandos landed undetected on the west islet escalating the tensions. It was not until 4 hours later when the Greeks noticed this when a Greek helicopter took off at 5:30 am from the Greek frigate Navarino for reconnaissance. During the mission it crashed over the islets (some speculating due to Turkish fire), but this was concealed by both states to prevent further escalation, although three Greek officers on the helicopter were killed: Christodoulos Karathanasis, Panagiotis Vlahakos, and Ektoras Gialopsos.
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on Germany in February 23, 1945 . During the war Turkey supplied the Nazis with materials essential for military armaments like chromite, when Albert Speer was interrogated by the US said that if in 1943 the Turks stopped the supply, the German military production would cease within months.
