{"id":3063,"date":"2018-02-14T11:44:00","date_gmt":"2018-02-14T11:44:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/?p=3063"},"modified":"2018-02-18T17:30:58","modified_gmt":"2018-02-18T17:30:58","slug":"turkish-coast-guard-corvette-rammed-a-hellenic-coast-guard-opv-near-imiakardak-islets-vid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.plymouth.ac.uk\/dcss\/2018\/02\/14\/turkish-coast-guard-corvette-rammed-a-hellenic-coast-guard-opv-near-imiakardak-islets-vid\/","title":{"rendered":"TURKISH COAST GUARD CORVETTE RAMMED A HELLENIC COAST GUARD OPV NEAR IMIA\/KARDAK ISLETS (Vid.)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A Turkish Coast Guard (TCG) Corvette rammed a Hellenic Coast Guard (HCG) Offshore Patrol Vessel (OPV) near the Aegean uninhabited islets of Imia – Kardak in Turkish. The incident took place at 23:45 on the 12th of February 2018 with no reports of injuries to the crew of either vessel.<\/p>\n

The Turkish vessel was the SG-703 Umut corvette, a Dost class boat (displacement 1725 tons, length 88,4 meters, equipped with a Fast Forty twin barrel gun 40mm\/70 OTO Melara, 2 STAMP 12,7 mm stabilized platforms, one AB-412 helicopter) while the Greek OPV was the \u201c090\u201d Gavdos, a STAN PATROL 5509 class vessel (displacement 700 tons, length 58,5 meters, unarmed).<\/p>\n

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The incident happened during the night when \u201c090\u201d Gavdos was sent from the island of Kalymnos, to assist another Hellenic Coast Guard OPV, the \u201c060\u201d Fourni, a Sa\u2019ar 4.5 class vessel, which was patrolling the waters around the Imia islets and was harassed by vessels of the Turkish Coast Guard.<\/p>\n

Just after \u201c090\u201d Gavdos arrived in the area of the Imia islets, it was rammed by the Turkish Coast Guard SG-703 Umut corvette.\u00a0 From the information available so far, it is believed that at least two Turkish Coast Guard ships had set a deliberate trap to ambush the Greek vessel, which is considered the flagship of the Hellenic Coast Guard.<\/p>\n

According to the captain of \u201c090\u201d Gavdos the vessel suffered serious damage to the stern where the Turkish corvette hit it with its bows.\u00a0 He said that, \u201cIf I had not maneuvered, they would have sunk us<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

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Another high-ranking official of the Greek government said that, \u201cIt was a calculated attempt by the Turks to sink the Greek ship. It was not a simple harassment or obstruction of the boat that was patrolling Imia islets like the incident that had occurred on the 17th of January 2018 at the same area when a Turkish Coast Guard vessel tried unsuccessfully to ram the Hellenic Navy gunboat P267 Nikephoros<\/em>\u201d.<\/p>\n

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The damaged Greek patrol vessel returned to its base in Elefsis Port for repairs and was replaced by the \u201c070\u201d Ro, a Sa\u2019ar 4.5 class patrol vessel.<\/p>\n

Video from the incident of the 12th of February 2018<\/p>\n