Athens News Agency: News in English, 02-06-23

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Monday weather - Sunny and hot

[02] Coast guard reports 5 migrant crossing incidents in eastern Aegean

[03] Greek PM comments on Euro Army issue at Seville EU summit

[04] Gov't orders end to ferryboat strike

[01] Monday weather - Sunny and hot

Sunny weather is again forecast for Greece on Monday, a national holiday in the country. Northerly winds, moderate to strong on the seas. Temperatures between 18C to 37C on the mainland, 21C to 32C on the islands.

Sunny in Athens, 23C to 36C. The same for Thessaloniki, 20C to 36C.

[02] Coast guard reports 5 migrant crossing incidents in eastern Aegean

Nearly half a dozen interceptions of illegal immigrants in the eastern Aegean were recorded over the weekend, while in one instance Greek authorities reported that 23 would-be migrants were rescued after the Turkish coast guard refused to tow in their small wooden vessel as it drifted in Turkish waters.

According to reports, the incident began at around 6:30 a.m. (local time) between the eastern Aegean island of Hios and the Asia Minor coast with the detection of the small vessel in Turkish territorial waters.

Greeces merchant marine ministry later charged that two Turkish coast guard patrol boats arriving on the scene at 8:15 a.m. and 9:15 a.m., respectively, declined to aid the migrant-laden vessel. The Piraeus-based ministry also noted, in a press release, that Turkeys coast guard headquarters was initially briefed of the situation by phone, while an urgent signal was sent to Ankara moments after the wooden boat was detected.

All 23 migrants were subsequently transported to Hios.

Sources said the Greek side will press for the immediate implementation of Article IV of a recently signed Greek-Turkish migrant re-admittance protocol, while at the same time tabling protests with Turkish and European authorities -- as well as the United Nations -- over the alleged violation of international rules governing the rescue of individuals at sea.

The migrant re-admittance protocol -- signed in Athens last November between Greek Foreign Minister George Papandreou and Turkish FM Ismail Cem gives law enforcement authorities in either in Greece or Turkey a 14-day period to inform their counterparts on the exact number of people to be re-admitted following their detention, including citizens from third countries.

Sunday mornings incident off Hios was the third over the weekend, as authorities previously detained a total of 10 Third World illegal immigrants during the preceding two days, including four Afghan men on Saturday and another six would-be immigrants, five men and one woman, on Friday. According to reports, the latter group was comprised of four Iranians and two Afghans.

In both of the latter instances, all of the illegals were spotted attempting to reach the Greek island aboard flimsy rubber dinghies, and after first disembarking from the adjacent Turkish coast.

Meanwhile, the coast guard on the island of the Lesvos, north of Hios, reported arrests of seaborne illegal immigrants on Saturday as well, with two Afghans in a childrens beach raft spotted just off the large island.

Another six illegal immigrants, five Iranians and a Somali, were intercepted northeast of the small Farmakonisi isles on Saturday. They were subsequently transferred to the coast guard station on the eastern Aegean island of Leros.

Finally, the Greek coast guard was searching on Sunday for an unidentified freighter between the islands of Syros, Serifos and Kythnos (south-west Aegean) that is also reportedly carrying illegal immigrants.

[03] Greek PM comments on Euro Army issue at Seville EU summit

SEVILLE (ANA) Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis briefed reporters here on Saturday over the latest high-level negotiations to gain a compromise on the ?Euro Army? issue, with the Greek side apparently satisfied with the EUs acceptance of Athens positions and despite the fact that the impasse remains due to a last-minute intervention by non-EU member Turkey.

Simitis said that although a final agreement wasnt reached, substantial progress was achieved, noting among others, that the controversial ?Ankara Texts? autonomy was essentially nullified. The text refers to a compromise negotiated by the US and UK to allay Ankaras objections to the embryonic European rapid deployment forces use of NATO logistics.

Additionally, the Greek premier stressed that the principles of equality, autonomy and reciprocity in EU-NATO were reinforced, while the idea of third countries autonomy in the EUs decision-making process was ruled out.

Simitis also said that the Helsinki summit agreements were again confirmed, along with a commitment against the use of violence by EU and NATO members.

Finally, the Greek PM said he will brief Greece's political leaders over developments at the Seville summit.

[04] Gov't orders end to ferryboat strike

Ferry and passenger vessels across Greece took to the seas on Saturday following a government decision a day earlier to declare a civil mobilisation in the strike-plagued sector.

In moving to legally end the debilitating strike ahead of the summers first three-day holiday weekend, the government served striking seamen with mobilisation papers late Friday evening, while skippers also informed by the coast guard that their vessels were being formally requisitioned.

The four-day-long strike, called by the Panhellenic Seamens Federation (PNO) on Tuesday, had stranded thousands of travelers on Greeces numerous islands and threatened to ruin the holiday weekend for tourism-related enterprises on both the Aegean and Ionian destinations.

Fridays mobilisation order came on the heels of an earlier PNO decision to extend the strike for another 48 hours. It was originally set to end by 6 a.m. Saturday.

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