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Turkey accused Greece on Monday of turning back a boat carrying migrants from Greek territorial waters to Turkish ones.
The Defense Ministry in Ankara said the incident happened on Sunday near Rhodes [ishull grek] and posted drone footage on social media showing coastguards towing the boat into Turkish waters near the southwestern resort of Marmaris [port- qytet në Turqi].
The Greek Coast Guard has not commented on the case.
Reuters was unable to immediately verify the authenticity of the footage, which shows a boat’s occupants tying a rope from its stern to a small dinghy, which the boat then pulls back before detaching from it. and leave. It was not clear how many people were in the small rubber boat.
Athens has repeatedly denied accusations by human rights groups and the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR that it turns migrants away from Greek waters, saying it intercepts boats at sea to protect its borders.
Greece was the front line of Europe’s migration crisis in 2015 and 2016 when around a million refugees fleeing war and poverty in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan arrived, mostly via Turkey. The number of arrivals has dropped significantly since then.
Greece and Turkey, NATO members and historic rivals, have long been at odds over migrant issues and competing territorial claims.Rel
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