The collision occurred early Wednesday in Greek waters off the eastern islet of Kardak, over which the two NATO allies came close to war in 1996, the official told The Associated Press. He asked not to be identified as his department was not directly involved in the incident. He said the two patrol boats collided as the Turkish vessel was trying to chase off Greek fishing vessels in the area. The uninhabited islet lies in rich fishing grounds. The official said Athens is expected to lodge an official complaint with Ankara over the incident.Kardak crisis
Two small, uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea became the source of a Turkish-Greek international military crisis in the mid-1990s. The crisis started when a Turkish cargo ship ran aground on the islets and a discussion over which side needed to save the ship turned into a conflict on the sovereignty of the islets. On Dec. 29, 1995, Turkey declared the two islets its own territory, and on Jan. 26, 1996 a Greek priest hoisted a Greek flag on the rocks. To oppose this, some Turkish TV journalists flew to the islet in a helicopter and raised a Turkish flag, bringing down the Greek one, with the whole event broadcast live on Turkish television. But within 24 hours, what started as a priest-journalist dogfight turned into an exchange of fierce statements by Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Çiller and the new Greek prime minister, Kostas Simitis. The crisis was eased by US intervention and the removal of the Greek flag from the islets; however, the issue has remained unresolved since then.
