#fourni

Greek and foreign scientists are really excited with the surprising discoveries in the archipelago of the Greek island of Fournoi.

At least 58 shipwrecks, most of them dating back to the ancient, Roman and Byzantine times, were found under the surface of the Aegean Sea.

This discovery could be the largest concentration of shipwrecks from the antiquity and the middle ages ever found in the Aegean and possibly the whole of the Mediterranean Sea.

Eight sunken ships have been found around Fourni, a cluster of Greek islands that's a hotspot for wrecks, a team of underwater archaeologists announced.

The new discoveries mean a total of 53 shipwrecks have now been identified at Fourni in an area of 17 square miles (44 square kilometers).

In ancient times, the archipelago was a popular stop along trade routes in the Aegean Sea. Under normal conditions, the islands' harbors were safe. But researchers think that with so many vessels passing through the area over thousands of years, several were bound to be lost in storms.

Τhe municipality of Fourni has announced the establishment of the first Energy Community on the Greek islands with an aim of becoming a self-sufficient and energy-independent island with the implementation of successful production, storage, and smart energy management technologies via energy renewable sources for the benefit of the municipality and its people.

Stray cats doze in the sun, children race down alleyways on bikes and a fisherman cuts up a freshly-caught octopus on the deck of his boat.

It is a picture of tranquillity, the essence of Greek island life, as hoteliers and taverna owners gear up for the start of the summer tourist season.

But the remote Aegean island of Fourni has found itself caught up in an increasingly dangerous confrontation between Greece and Turkey.

A series of incidents have plunged relations between Athens and Ankara to their lowest point since 1996, when they nearly went to war over a disputed islet.

Last month, three Greek men from Fourni took a boat and planted the blue and white Greek flag on an uninhabited rocky island a few miles away.

Turkey, which disputes ownership of a string of islands in the Aegean, was incensed and claimed to have sent a coast guard vessel to rip down the flag.

That claim was bluntly dismissed by the Greeks, who said the flag was still flapping in the wind.

The incident would have been farcical were it not for the fact that the potential consequences were so serious.

“Fourni is 20 miles from the Turkish coast. By no definition could this ever be considered disputed territory and yet they dispute it. So there’s a dynamic of them increasing their demands,” said Angelos Chryssogelos, an expert on Greece from Chatham House in London.

“If Greek citizens can’t set up a flag in that part of the Aegean without protests from Turkey that means there’s a lot of the Aegean that Turkey considers disputed. That’s an escalation.”

It was just one of several altercations that have dramatically worsened the relationship between the regional rivals.

Last month, Greek soldiers fired warning shots at a Turkish helicopter when it approached the island of Ro, a few miles off the Turkish coast, and a Greek fighter pilot died when his F16 crashed into the sea following a mock dog fight with Turkish fighters.

Tension was ratcheted up further on Friday when a Greek warship and a Turkish cargo ship collided in waters southeast of the island of Lesbos, in the northern Aegean.

The Greek navy said the Turkish-flagged Karmate put on speed and made off into Turkish waters after the pre-dawn incident, ignoring radio messages from the Armatolos gunboat to stop.

Greek fighters are scrambled on an almost daily basis to confront Turkish planes intruding into what Greece claims is its air space.

“People here are worried,” said Stamatoula Achladis, a pharmacist and hotel owner in Fourni’s main village, Fourni Korseon, which owes its name to the corsair pirates who once sheltered here and plotted their next raids.

“We have no issue with the Turkish people – lots of them come here during the summer on holiday and we like them very much,” she said, as Greek soldiers in camouflage fatigues piled into a truck on their way to a military outpost.

Like many Greek islands in the Aegean, Fourni has a strong military presence. A road that leads from Fourni Korseon along the coast abruptly ends after less than a mile at a roadblock made of barbed wire and oil drums guarding a Greek base.

In the distance, another military bunker is tucked at the base of a cliff, well positioned to defend the surrounding bay from attack. Tourists may not think of the Aegean as being militarised, but concrete bunkers and gun emplacements are scattered across the islands that face the Turkish coast.

It is not just in the Aegean that tension is high. Athens has refused to extradite eight Turkish servicemen who fled to Greece after the attempted coup against the Erdogan government in 2016, and Turkey is refusing to hand over two Greek soldiers it arrested on the northern land border after they strayed across the frontier in March.

Relations are now so fraught that one false move could lead to a dangerous escalation and, potentially, military confrontation.

“What if the other Greek planes thought the F16 had been shot down? They would have shot down the Turkish planes. That’s all it takes. “Nobody would have wanted that, but it would have happened in a few minutes,” said Yiannis Baboulias, an analyst and journalist in Athens.

“There’s a lot of concern in Greece that we may be heading for war in spite of everything.”

Tensions have simmered between the neighbours for decades, despite them both being members of Nato, but Turkey’s position has become increasingly provocative as the leadership of president Recep Tayyip Erdogan becomes ever more authoritarian.

It is partly for domestic political reasons – banging the nationalist drum appeals to some of Erdogan’s voters.

It is also a distraction at a time when the Turkish economy is stuttering, inflation is high and the Turkish lire dropped to record lows, earning it the distinction of being the world's worst performing emerging-markets currency.

Mr Erdogan has suggested that the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, which established the current borders between the two countries, should be revised – a call that is seen as an outrageous provocation in Athens.

“I am very much afraid that Erdogan has cornered himself in a place where he has to escalate constantly towards Greece or over Syria. That’s how he has structured his appeal to the people,” said Mr Baboulias.

There are also strategic factors involved.

Turkey is keen to grab a slice of any gas or oil that is found in the Aegean, as it has been discovered in the waters around Cyprus.

“It’s not just the islands per se. They define the limits of the continental shelf which has implications for future offshore resources and freedom of navigation,” said Sinan Ulgen, a visiting scholar at the think tank Carnegie Europe and an expert on Turkish foreign policy.

“The Fourni islands are part of this package of islands whose status is unclear.”

The flames of the Aegean dispute have been fanned by both sides.

In Turkey, Binali Yildirim, the prime minister, has accused the Greeks of behaving like “pirates”.

The nationalist posturing from Ankara is only likely to increase as the country heads towards a snap election on June 24.

There is no shortage of fiery rhetoric on the Greek side, particularly from the country’s pugnacious defence minister, Panos Kammenos.

He has described President Erdogan as a “mad man” who behaves like a sultan and “has gone completely crazy”.

The minister, who is the leader of the Right-wing Independent Greeks party, a junior partner in the governing coalition, last month threatened to “crush” any Turkish incursion, announcing the deployment of 7,000 fresh soldiers to border areas.

Greece’s foreign minister said recently that Turkey had come close to “stepping across red lines” with its behaviour.

Nikos Kotzias referred to an incident in February when a Turkish coast guard vessel rammed into a Greek coast guard patrol boat off the islet of Imia – where the two sides came close to war in 1996.

“If we didn’t have a calm and composed approach from the Greek side, no one can say where this could have led,” Mr Kotzias said.

When the two countries came to the brink of war over the disputed islet, known in Turkish as Kardak, the US stepped in to mediate.

Two decades on, the geopolitical landscape has changed, increasing the chance of an accidental conflict.

“There’s a big difference now. Back then the US was the unipolar superpower. Today what we lack is a strong outside presence,” said Dr Chryssogelos.

“Nato is weakened, America under Trump is unpredictable and the EU is largely irrelevant in this dispute.”

The EU has less leverage over Ankara because Turkey no longer believes its accession to the bloc is likely.

“The stabilising effect of the prospect of Turkey joining the EU has vanished. The issue no longer enters the calculus of Turkish policy makers and the EU has lost all leverage over Turkey,” said Mr Ulgen in Istanbul.

Any military altercation could have a devastating effect on tourism on both sides of the Aegean, just as the summer season gets underway.

“What American or European tourist would want to spend their vacation on a Greek island or in a Turkish coastal resort, instead of at a destination in Italy or Spain, after seeing images of falling fighter jets or sinking gunboats?” Kathimerini, a leading Greek daily, asked in an editorial.

As Turkish and Greek fighters engage in mock dog fights high up in the azure skies of the Aegean, life on islands like Fourni carries on as normal.

Apart from the presence of soldiers in bunkers protected by razor wire and sandbags, there is little to hint at the trouble brewing.

Old women dressed in funereal black potter around the back lanes of Fourni Korseon, while elderly men while away the day drinking iced coffee in the harbourfront tavernas.

There is little appetite for a fight with Turkey.