LE FIGARO. - Turkey accuses you of being at the origin of the Imia (Kardak in Turkish) incidents in 1996. What do you have to say?
Dimitri DIAHOMIHALIS. - History must not be falsified. It all started on December 25, 1995, when a Turkish ship ran aground on the islet of Imia. He refused help from the Greek Coast Guard, claiming that Imia did not belong to Greece. After much negotiation, Greek tugs finally took him back to the Turkish coast. On December 29, the Turkish Foreign Ministry declared that the rocky islets (Imia, Kalolimnos and the other 13 islets) were registered in the cadastre of the Bodrum Alicarnasos region, and therefore belonged to Turkey. The Greek Foreign Ministry replied on January 10, 1996, declaring, in a clear tone, that Imia's origin was Greek, invoking the Treaties of Lausanne in 1923 and Paris of 1947.
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January 25, aware of my prerogatives as mayor of Kalymnos,
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