Mitsotakis Heads to Kastellorizo as Athens Sends Defiant Message to Ankara

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is travelling to Kastellorizo on Friday as tensions over the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean give his visit a significance far beyond its official commemorative purpose.

Mitsotakis will remain on the remote Dodecanese island until Sunday, when he will attend events marking the 83rd anniversary of Kastellorizo’s liberation.

His visit comes just days after renewed Turkish activity in the waters surrounding the island and fresh statements from Ankara concerning Greek islands, their military status and maritime zones.

A message aimed at Ankara

According to the Prime Minister’s official programme, Mitsotakis will arrive in Kastellorizo on Friday afternoon.

On Saturday, he is scheduled to meet Megisti Mayor Nikolaos Asvestis before visiting projects and infrastructure on the island.

On Sunday, he will attend the commemorative events marking the anniversary of the island’s liberation.

The timing has attracted particular attention in Athens.

Turkey has recently intensified its rhetoric over the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, while Ankara has also raised the issue of the demilitarisation of Greek islands.

Greek officials have made clear that Athens does not intend to retreat from Greece’s sovereignty or sovereign rights.

Mitsotakis’ presence on Kastellorizo therefore carries a clear political and diplomatic message: Greece considers the island an integral part of its territory and will continue to defend its sovereign rights in the surrounding region.

The Prime Minister is also expected to be accompanied by senior political and military figures, including Parliament President Nikitas Tasoulas, Chief of the Hellenic National Defence General Staff General Dimitrios Houpis, Interior Minister Theodoros Livanios and four New Democracy MPs from the Dodecanese constituency.

Their presence adds further weight to the visit.

Turkey’s recent moves around Kastellorizo

The latest tensions intensified earlier this month after Turkey issued a NAVTEX announcing scientific research in maritime areas south and southwest of Kastellorizo.

The Turkish research vessel TÜBİTAK Marmara subsequently operated in the area.

Greece responded with a counter-NAVTEX, challenging the Turkish announcement and reaffirming Athens’ position regarding jurisdiction in the area.

The developments have once again placed Kastellorizo at the centre of the long-running Greek-Turkish dispute over maritime zones, including questions surrounding the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone.

The island’s location, just off the Turkish coast, has made it one of the most sensitive points in the wider dispute.

Erdogan’s renewed rhetoric

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also returned to the issue of the military status of Greek islands.

In recent remarks, he referred to the geographical proximity between the Turkish coastal town of Kas and Kastellorizo, further highlighting the island’s strategic significance in Ankara’s public messaging.

Athens, however, maintains that Turkish statements and activities cannot alter Greece’s sovereignty or its position regarding its sovereign rights.

Turkish media focus on Mitsotakis visit

The Prime Minister’s trip has also attracted attention from Turkish media outlets, some of which have portrayed the visit as a deliberate message to Ankara.

Reports have linked Mitsotakis’ presence on Kastellorizo to the latest developments in the Aegean, Greek defence policy and wider Greek activity in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The reaction itself underlines the significance attached to the island on both sides of the Aegean.

What could otherwise have been viewed as a routine commemorative visit has instead become another closely watched moment in the continuing Greek-Turkish relationship.

Part of a wider diplomatic push

Mitsotakis’ visit to Kastellorizo comes after a busy period of international diplomacy for the Greek government.

The Prime Minister recently travelled to Egypt for discussions involving Greece, Cyprus and Egypt before heading to Paris, where he met French President Emmanuel Macron.

The Greece-Cyprus-Israel electricity interconnection was among the strategic issues surrounding the Paris talks, highlighting the increasingly interconnected energy, security and geopolitical interests of the Eastern Mediterranean.

Against that backdrop, Mitsotakis’ presence on Kastellorizo sends a message that Athens is seeking to combine diplomatic engagement abroad with a visible assertion of Greece’s position on its eastern frontier.

For Athens, the symbolism is unmistakable: Kastellorizo remains firmly within Greece, and Greece intends to make that position clear.

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