Greek coast guard boats reaching Bodrum becomes a subject of humor

Greek coast guard boats reaching Bodrum becomes a subject of humor

While tensions between Turkey and Greece in the Aegean Sea occasionally rise, footage published on social media recently—and later released by official authorities—became a major topic of discussion. The footage showed a Greek coast guard boat reaching the shores of Bodrum and Datça.

Following the controversial footage, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya made a statement on his "X" account, saying that he had held a phone call with the Greek Minister of Maritime Affairs and Insular Policy and expressed the discomfort felt regarding the incident.

As the crisis remains a hot topic, it also became the subject of Zaytung, which covers political news in a satirical manner. The headline of the report published on Zaytung read, "Greek traffic police show no mercy to drivers breaking rules in Bodrum."

The full text of the satirical news prepared by Zaytung on the subject is as follows:

"Following the patrol of Greek Coast Guard boats along the Bodrum coast, a move also came from the Greek Traffic Police. Teams from the Athens Police Department's Traffic Branch, conducting a checkpoint in Bodrum, issued fines to over 600 drivers who did not follow the rules, while 27 people wanted for various crimes were caught and handed over to Greek justice...

Team Leader Commissioner Nikos Papayannopulos, who conducted the checkpoint, stated, 'While chasing human smugglers, we suddenly found ourselves at the entrance of Bodrum. Thinking that the individuals we were looking for might be in the vehicles, we started conducting checks. We haven't found the individuals yet, but we identified over 600 vehicles with expired inspections, drivers not wearing seatbelts, and broken signal lights, and issued the necessary fines to their drivers,' adding that they had not encountered any objections from either the drivers or official authorities so far. 

Stating that during their background checks they detained 27 people wanted for crimes such as extortion, assault, sexual assault, and drug trafficking and tried to hand them over to Turkish judicial authorities, Papayannopulos conveyed the difficulties they faced in the judicial process with these words: 'Unfortunately, we had some trouble reaching prosecutors there. When we did reach them, they said, "Don't cause us trouble early in the morning, just let them go," so we were forced to put them on our Coast Guard boats and send them to Greece to be arrested. If we had released them, they would have come to us by next summer anyway. We cannot allow thugs and criminals to roam our streets.'

Stating that they would continue to be on duty for the peace and security of the people of Bodrum as long as weather and sea conditions permit, Papayannopulos added, 'Winter is coming, as you know. If a storm or something breaks out, we might not be able to come, let's not make it sound like a promise,' while also noting that they were not considering leaving a permanent team for now because Bodrum is extremely expensive."