ATHENS (Sputnik) – Over the recent days, the Turkish military aircraft have been registered flying above the Greek islands in northeastern part of the Aegean Sea, which was seen as a potential threat by Athens.
"We are holding large exercises in order to be ready. Turkey has historically always tried to export problems when it has domestic ones. We must be ready for that," the source told RIA Novosti.
Earlier this week, Macedonian police fired tear gas and rubber bullets at migrants as they tried to break through a border fence on the Greek side of the border. The move raised concern in both countries, with Greece’s envoy in Skopje Theoharis Lalakos handing two protest notes on April 11 to the government of the Republic of Macedonia.
Europe has been beset by a massive refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants fleeing their home countries in the Middle East and North Africa to escape violence and poverty. A large number of them cross the Mediterranean Sea and arrive in the European Union using Greece or Italy as transit points.