Turkey's coast guard chief in Greece

[Ellinas]

The visiting commander of Turkey's coast guard, Rear Adm. Can Erenoğu, on Tuesday was successively received by Greek Merchant Marine & Island Policy Georgios Voulgarakis and by his Greek counterpart, Ilias Sionidis, for talks that expectedly focused on the issue of seaborne illegal immigration.

Greece has vociferously called for stricter patrolling by Turkish authorities of their side of the sea borders the two countries share in the eastern Aegean, as several Greek islands have over the past few years have become favorite targets of migrant smugglers operating from the Turkish coastline. Athens has also repeatedly taken up the issue with its European Union partners and called for the creation of an EU-wide coast guard.

Following his meeting with Voulgarakis, Rear Adm. Erenoğu told reporters that the purpose of his official visit to Athens is to increase mutual trust between the two neighbouring countries' coast guard services.

"We are aware of the problem of illegal immigration and we are dealing with it. It is the problem of our century, and the countries most affected are Greece, Turkey and the European Union," Erenoğu said, adding that his government is serious about dealing this global problem, as he noted.

"…we understand that illegal immigration affects our (Greece and Turkey) relations, as this is also a matter of security. The Turkish coast guard arrested 4,250 illegal immigrants in 2007 alone, triple the number of the last three years. When an issue involving illegal immigrants arises we exchange information and coordinate the operation," he said.

Asked by local reporters if problems exist in search-and-rescue operations (in the Aegean), Erenoğu merely noted that all "issues are open (for discussion) without any problem. Search-and-rescue is a humanitarian issue. To rescue someone from the sea is one of our primary duties, whereas there is good cooperation between the two countries' search-and-rescue centres."

On his part, Voulgarakis, whose ministry holds the coast guard and harbour corps portfolio, said the issue of search-and-rescue operations was not discussed.

ANA