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94-646: Imia ( Greek : Ίμια ) is a pair of small uninhabited islets in the Aegean Sea , situated between the Greek island chain of the Dodecanese and the southwestern mainland coast of Turkey . They are known in Turkey as Kardak . Imia was the object of a military crisis and subsequent dispute over sovereignty between Greece and Turkey in 1996. The Imia dispute is part of the larger Aegean dispute , which also comprises disputes over

188-524: A Greek flag on the east islet on 25 January. To oppose this, on 27 January some Turkish journalists from Hürriyet landed on the islet with a helicopter, lowered the Greek flag and hoisted a Turkish flag , the whole event being broadcast live on Turkish television. On 28 January, the Greek Navy patrol boat Antoniou lowered the Turkish flag and restored the Greek flag, in violation of the political order which

282-523: A Hellenic Navy Bell 212, took off from the Greek frigate Navarino for reconnaissance. The Greek SEALs confirmed the presence of Turkish forces and were ordered to return to the ship where during its return the helicopter crashed over the islets (some speculating due to Turkish fire), but this was concealed by both states to prevent further escalation, although three Greek officers on the helicopter were killed: Christodoulos Karathanasis, Panagiotis Vlahakos, and Ektoras Gialopsos. The immediate military threat

376-570: A basis for coinages: anthropology , photography , telephony , isomer , biomechanics , cinematography , etc. Together with Latin words , they form the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary ; for example, all words ending in -logy ('discourse'). There are many English words of Greek origin . Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient language most closely related to it may be ancient Macedonian , which, by most accounts,

470-410: A consistent representation of whatever legal opinions they held with respect to these islands, in the work of their cartographic state agencies. There is also the case of a neighbouring islet, only a few miles from Imia, called Zouka , Dzouka or Topan Adası , which was consistently shown as Turkish in Greek naval maps, but as Greek in Greek topographic maps. When the attention of the Greek government

564-552: A fairly stable set of consonantal contrasts . The main phonological changes occurred during the Hellenistic and Roman period (see Koine Greek phonology for details): In all its stages, the morphology of Greek shows an extensive set of productive derivational affixes , a limited but productive system of compounding and a rich inflectional system. Although its morphological categories have been fairly stable over time, morphological changes are present throughout, particularly in

658-508: A faster, more convenient cursive writing style with the use of ink and quill . The Greek alphabet consists of 24 letters, each with an uppercase ( majuscule ) and lowercase ( minuscule ) form. The letter sigma has an additional lowercase form (ς) used in the final position of a word: In addition to the letters, the Greek alphabet features a number of diacritical signs : three different accent marks ( acute , grave , and circumflex ), originally denoting different shapes of pitch accent on

752-531: A foreign language. It is also often stated that the historical changes have been relatively slight compared with some other languages. According to one estimation, " Homeric Greek is probably closer to Demotic than 12-century Middle English is to modern spoken English ". Greek is spoken today by at least 13 million people, principally in Greece and Cyprus along with a sizable Greek-speaking minority in Albania near

846-532: A line that runs where Greece today claims the territorial boundary should be, with Imia on the Greek side. Turkey holds that the agreement about the FIR boundaries was not concerned with determining sovereignty, and thus has no bearing on the issue. During and after the crisis of 1996, both sides put a lot of emphasis on previously published maps, which were cited as evidence purportedly showing that their respective views were shared by third parties, or had even been shared by

940-498: A military helicopter and threw a wreath into the sea around the islets where the three Greek Navy officers were killed in 1996. In December 2016, Turkey's Foreign Minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu , said that the islets were "Turkish soil", while the Greek government responded that "Greece's sovereignty over its islands in the Aegean, including Imia, is indisputable and established by international law." European Commission spokesperson said that

1034-404: A month later, on 20 January 1996 when the Greek magazine GRAMMA ran a story, one day after Kostas Simitis was appointed to form a new Greek government as prime minister . The article brought a severe reaction from the Greek press, which was followed by four citizens of the neighboring island of Kalymnos , including the mayor and the owner of a herd of sheep that remained on the islets, hoisting

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1128-433: Is 10 acres (4.0 ha). The islands are also referred to as Limnia (Λίμνια) in Greek, or İkizce in Turkish, or as Heipethes in some early-20th century maps. The toponym "Kardak" is believed to come from the Greek "Kar(y)dakia", i.e. "small walnuts", because of their shape. While several other aspects of sovereignty rights in the Aegean , such as the territorial waters and national airspace, had been disputed between

1222-766: Is also found in Bulgaria near the Greek-Bulgarian border. Greek is also spoken worldwide by the sizable Greek diaspora which has notable communities in the United States , Australia , Canada , South Africa , Chile , Brazil , Argentina , Russia , Ukraine , the United Kingdom , and throughout the European Union , especially in Germany . Historically, significant Greek-speaking communities and regions were found throughout

1316-742: Is an Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece , Cyprus , Italy (in Calabria and Salento ), southern Albania , and other regions of the Balkans , Caucasus , the Black Sea coast, Asia Minor , and the Eastern Mediterranean . It has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning at least 3,400 years of written records. Its writing system

1410-474: Is an Indo-European language, but also includes a number of borrowings from the languages of the populations that inhabited Greece before the arrival of Proto-Greeks, some documented in Mycenaean texts ; they include a large number of Greek toponyms . The form and meaning of many words have changed. Loanwords (words of foreign origin) have entered the language, mainly from Latin, Venetian , and Turkish . During

1504-458: Is contained in diplomatic exchanges that have never been disclosed to the public by either of the two parties. Greece also cites as evidence for a former Turkish acceptance of Greek sovereignty the diplomatic procedures around the original delimitation of Flight Information Regions (FIR) within the framework of the ICAO , in 1950. The relevant treaty states that, in the Aegean zone, the boundary between

1598-461: Is protected and promoted officially as a regional and minority language in Armenia, Hungary , Romania, and Ukraine. It is recognized as a minority language and protected in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne . The phonology , morphology , syntax , and vocabulary of the language show both conservative and innovative tendencies across the entire attestation of the language from the ancient to

1692-770: Is sometimes called aljamiado , as when Romance languages are written in the Arabic alphabet. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Greek: Transcription of the example text into Latin alphabet : Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English: Proto-Greek Mycenaean Ancient Koine Medieval Modern Prime Minister of Turkey In

1786-518: Is spoken by at least 13.5 million people today in Greece, Cyprus, Italy, Albania, Turkey , and the many other countries of the Greek diaspora . Greek roots have been widely used for centuries and continue to be widely used to coin new words in other languages; Greek and Latin are the predominant sources of international scientific vocabulary . Greek has been spoken in the Balkan peninsula since around

1880-758: Is still used internationally for the writing of Ancient Greek . In Greek, the question mark is written as the English semicolon, while the functions of the colon and semicolon are performed by a raised point (•), known as the ano teleia ( άνω τελεία ). In Greek the comma also functions as a silent letter in a handful of Greek words, principally distinguishing ό,τι ( ó,ti , 'whatever') from ότι ( óti , 'that'). Ancient Greek texts often used scriptio continua ('continuous writing'), which means that ancient authors and scribes would write word after word with no spaces or punctuation between words to differentiate or mark boundaries. Boustrophedon , or bi-directional text,

1974-630: Is the Greek alphabet , which has been used for approximately 2,800 years; previously, Greek was recorded in writing systems such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary . The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin , Cyrillic , Coptic , Gothic , and many other writing systems. The Greek language holds a very important place in the history of the Western world. Beginning with

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2068-600: The EU is urging Turkey to avoid any kind of “source of friction, threat or action directed against a member-state, which damages good-neighborly relations and the peaceful settlement of disputes.” Tensions around the islets were renewed in January 2017, in light of deterioration of Greco–Turkish relations following Greek refusal to extradite participants of the failed 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt to Turkey. A Turkish navy missile boat accompanied with two special-forces speedboats entered

2162-486: The Eastern Mediterranean , in what are today Southern Italy , Turkey , Cyprus , Syria , Lebanon , Israel , Palestine , Egypt , and Libya ; in the area of the Black Sea , in what are today Turkey, Bulgaria , Romania , Ukraine , Russia , Georgia , Armenia , and Azerbaijan ; and, to a lesser extent, in the Western Mediterranean in and around colonies such as Massalia , Monoikos , and Mainake . It

2256-510: The Indo-Iranian languages (see Graeco-Aryan ), but little definitive evidence has been found. In addition, Albanian has also been considered somewhat related to Greek and Armenian, and it has been proposed that they all form a higher-order subgroup along with other extinct languages of the ancient Balkans; this higher-order subgroup is usually termed Palaeo-Balkan , and Greek has a central position in it. Linear B , attested as early as

2350-635: The Turkish National Movement , the 1st Parliament instituted a new government called "The Cabinet of the Executive Ministers" (Turkish: İcra Vekilleri Heyeti). The post was then held by the Speaker of the Parliament , who presided over the cabinet ex-officio . One-party period (1923–1945) Following the declaration of the republic, the existing constitution of 1921 was amended, conferring

2444-642: The continental shelf , the territorial waters, the air space , the Flight Information Regions (FIR) and the demilitarization of the Aegean islands. In the aftermath of the Imia crisis, the dispute was also widened, as Turkey began to lay parallel claims to a larger number of other islets in the Aegean. These islands, some of them inhabited, are regarded as indisputably Greek by Greece but as grey zones of undetermined sovereignty by Turkey. The islets lie 5.5 nautical miles (10.2 km; 6.3 mi) east of

2538-449: The general election held in 1950 , the constitution was amended, disallowing the president-elect to remain the leader of their political party. These amendments resulted in the prime minister becoming the dominant figure in Turkish politics , sharply diminishing the role of the president. After Prime Minister Adnan Menderes was ousted from power as a result of the 1960 Turkish coup d'état ,

2632-492: The nominal and verbal systems. The major change in the nominal morphology since the classical stage was the disuse of the dative case (its functions being largely taken over by the genitive ). The verbal system has lost the infinitive , the synthetically -formed future, and perfect tenses and the optative mood . Many have been replaced by periphrastic ( analytical ) forms. Pronouns show distinctions in person (1st, 2nd, and 3rd), number (singular, dual , and plural in

2726-648: The prime ministers of contemporary Western European monarchies. Later, with the Ottoman constitution of 1876 , a parliament was established to oversee the grand vizier. With the constitutional amendments that took place during the Second Constitutional Era , the grand vizier was made answerable to the parliament rather than the sultan. After the establishment of the Grand National Assembly in Ankara by

2820-482: The 1960s, these islets are shown as Greek territory. After the incident Greece threatened to reopen debate on implementation of an EU customs union accord with Turkey and to block an EU aid package that is part of the accord. Greece mentioned that Turkey broke a commitment under the accord to have amicable ties with EU members. Many EU foreign ministers urged the parties to solve differences amicably. EU members were concerned that Greece's moves against Turkey would violate

2914-465: The 3rd millennium BC, or possibly earlier. The earliest written evidence is a Linear B clay tablet found in Messenia that dates to between 1450 and 1350 BC, making Greek the world's oldest recorded living language . Among the Indo-European languages, its date of earliest written attestation is matched only by the now-extinct Anatolian languages . The Greek language is conventionally divided into

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3008-487: The Athens and Istanbul FIRs was to follow the boundaries of the territorial waters. This implies, according to the Greek view, that both parties at that time were taking for granted that a mutually agreed border did indeed exist, which would contradict the claims of persisting "grey zones" made today by Turkey. The maps of the air zones published after that agreement (e.g. an official map published by Turkey in 1953) do indeed show

3102-486: The Greek alphabet since approximately the 9th century BC. It was created by modifying the Phoenician alphabet , with the innovation of adopting certain letters to represent the vowels. The variant of the alphabet in use today is essentially the late Ionic variant, introduced for writing classical Attic in 403 BC. In classical Greek, as in classical Latin, only upper-case letters existed. The lower-case Greek letters were developed much later by medieval scribes to permit

3196-438: The Greek island Kalymnos , 1.9 nmi (3.5 km; 2.2 mi) southeast of the Greek island of Kalolimnos , 3.8 nmi (7.0 km; 4.4 mi) west of the Turkish peninsula of Bodrum , and 2.2 nmi (4.1 km; 2.5 mi) from the Turkish islet of Çavuş Adası . The islets lie some 300 m (1,000 ft) apart from each other, the eastern one being slightly larger than the western one. Their total surface area

3290-425: The Greek language are often emphasized. Although Greek has undergone morphological and phonological changes comparable to those seen in other languages, never since classical antiquity has its cultural, literary, and orthographic tradition been interrupted to the extent that one can speak of a new language emerging. Greek speakers today still tend to regard literary works of ancient Greek as part of their own rather than

3384-491: The Greek language was the Cypriot syllabary (also a descendant of Linear A via the intermediate Cypro-Minoan syllabary ), which is closely related to Linear B but uses somewhat different syllabic conventions to represent phoneme sequences. The Cypriot syllabary is attested in Cyprus from the 11th century BC until its gradual abandonment in the late Classical period, in favor of the standard Greek alphabet. Greek has been written in

3478-629: The Greek verb have likewise remained largely the same over the course of the language's history but with significant changes in the number of distinctions within each category and their morphological expression. Greek verbs have synthetic inflectional forms for: Many aspects of the syntax of Greek have remained constant: verbs agree with their subject only, the use of the surviving cases is largely intact (nominative for subjects and predicates, accusative for objects of most verbs and many prepositions, genitive for possessors), articles precede nouns, adpositions are largely prepositional, relative clauses follow

3572-661: The Greek-Albanian border. A significant percentage of Albania's population has knowledge of the Greek language due in part to the Albanian wave of immigration to Greece in the 1980s and '90s and the Greek community in the country. Prior to the Greco-Turkish War and the resulting population exchange in 1923 a very large population of Greek-speakers also existed in Turkey , though very few remain today. A small Greek-speaking community

3666-481: The Imia and the related "grey-zones" issue, are the following: The problem is because Imia is situated just outside the three-mile boundary of Article 6 and Article 12, but is also not in an obvious, strict sense geographically "dependent" (Article 15) on the larger Dodecanese islands (being still closer to the Turkish mainland than to the next larger island). Greece considers that the wording of Articles 12 and 16 together precludes any Turkish claim to territories outside

3760-403: The Imia issue in favour of either side. However, both Greek and Turkish public opinion has been eager to observe the stance of foreign governments on the issue, as evidenced through details such as the cartographic treatment of Imia in maps published by state agencies. Particular close attention has been paid in this context to maps published by US government agencies. Shortly after the 1996 crisis,

3854-607: The International Court of Justice. The resolution by the European Parliament entitled "Resolution on the provocative actions and contestation of sovereign rights by Turkey against a Member State of the Union" also stated that Greece's borders were EU borders. In addition, it stated that the islets of Imia belongs to Dodecanese group of islands pursuant to the 1923 , 1932 and 1947 treaties and whereas even on Turkish maps from

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3948-459: The Italian government during the 1930s and the Greek government between 1947 and the 1950s had shown itself to be well aware that the 1932 protocol did not provide legal grounds for an exact delimitation of the boundary. Conversely, Greece claims that Turkey, already during the 1930s, had explicitly confirmed to Italy that it considered the 1932 protocol valid and binding. However, most of this evidence

4042-527: The Ottoman Empire, the prime minister of the Ottoman sultan held the title of Grand Vizier ( Turkish : Sadrazam ), though in the 19th century, some heads of government were appointed with the title Prime Minister, ( Turkish : Başnazır ). Starting in the 1830s, Grand Viziers began to minister cabinets. After the Tanzimat period in the 19th century, the grand viziers came to assume a role more like that of

4136-476: The Treaty of Lausanne. There are also issues relating to the interpretation of a later protocol signed between Italy and Turkey in 1932; regarding certain diplomatic exchanges made between the three parties at various times between 1932 and 1996; and regarding the relevance of actual practice (the factual exercise of sovereignty by either party) prior to 1996. The provisions in the Treaty of Lausanne that are relevant to

4230-593: The Turkish Foreign Ministry notified the Greek authorities that it believed there was a sovereignty issue, and on 29 December it declared the islets Turkish territory. On January 9, Athens rejected the claim, citing the Treaty of Lausanne (1923), the Convention between Italy and Turkey (1932) and the Treaty of Paris (1947). The whole event was barely reported in the media so it was not widely known to public until

4324-550: The US National Imaging and Mapping Agency (NIMA) removed the Greek name Vrakhoi Imia from its maps, adding instead a note saying "Sovereignty undetermined", but in a new edition a few months later, in October 1996, it reverted that move and returned to the Greek name. In addition, the U.S. administration suggested that Turkey's claims be taken to a peaceful resolution according to the international law. The government of Italy ,

4418-621: The US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo , on his first official visit to Greece, when asked about a potential Imia scenario involving an escalation of Turkish aggression in the Aegean, stated that the US and Greece share the same values on sovereignty and vowed that the US would "protect […] these basic ideas of sovereignty". Greek language Greek ( Modern Greek : Ελληνικά , romanized :  Elliniká , [eliniˈka] ; Ancient Greek : Ἑλληνική , romanized :  Hellēnikḗ )

4512-604: The account of its former navigation officer it is possible that the islets in question were wrongfully charted as belonging to Turkey by his predecessor. The reason was that during the Second World War boats of a British Special Boat Service flotilla often evaded German patrols by making fast alongside Turkish fishing boats near the islet and convincing the Germans that they were Turkish fishermen in Turkish territory. Out of this experience one officer of HMS Childers, who had served

4606-404: The acute during the late 20th century, and it has only been retained in typography . After the writing reform of 1982, most diacritics are no longer used. Since then, Greek has been written mostly in the simplified monotonic orthography (or monotonic system), which employs only the acute accent and the diaeresis. The traditional system, now called the polytonic orthography (or polytonic system),

4700-402: The ancient language; singular and plural alone in later stages), and gender (masculine, feminine, and neuter), and decline for case (from six cases in the earliest forms attested to four in the modern language). Nouns, articles, and adjectives show all the distinctions except for a person. Both attributive and predicative adjectives agree with the noun. The inflectional categories of

4794-573: The area around the islets on 29 January 2017. According to the statement issued by the Defence Ministry of Greece, they were blocked and warned by Greek coast guard vessels and withdrew from the area after about seven minutes. The Turkish armed forces denied that the ships were blocked but did not otherwise deny the incident; they stated that the mission was a part of an inspection of the Aksaz Naval Base by chief of General Staff Hulusi Akar , who

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4888-465: The assessment of the legal status of the islets, acknowledged as such by both sides, is the Peace Treaty of Lausanne of 1923. With this peace treaty, Turkey confirmed large cessions of former Ottoman territory to Greece and Italy which had been de facto under their control since 1911 or 1913. The chain of the Dodecanese islands, which includes the islands neighbouring Imia, were ceded to Italy. Later

4982-444: The causes for the different sovereignty claims. Bill Clinton said about the crisis: "I thought my aides were joking when they said Turkey and Greece would engage in war over rocks on which none but sheep live. I held phone calls with the leaders of both countries, and convinced them to not go to war over the rocks that inhabited mostly 20 sheep". After 1996, most foreign countries have carefully avoided taking an unequivocal stand on

5076-439: The customs union accord and interfere with developing ties and access to Turkey's market. The United States were also concerned since they were a proponent of Turkish-European links. The French President Jacques Chirac “indicated that the fewer new problems Greece created for EU-Turkish cooperation, the more likely France would be to show solidarity with Greece.” Other European governments reportedly implied that if Greece sabotaged

5170-649: The customs union, then they would stall talks on Cyprus EU membership. Greek Prime Minister said that Greece would cooperate with the EU once Turkey agreed to International Court of Justice jurisdiction, but Turkey must initiate an appeal to the International Court of Justice since it is questioning Greek rights. The Greek opposition criticized the government, for its inability to get more support from Europe, while Turkey sent officials to Europe to explain their views and to counter Greece's attempt to impede Turkish-EU relations and recalled its ambassador from Athens. In October 2019,

5264-404: The distress call. The Turkish captain initially refused the assistance offered, maintaining that he was within Turkish territorial waters. He ultimately accepted being towed to the Turkish port of Güllük by the Greek tugboat. The Greek captain filled in the necessary papers for the salvage fee but the Turkish captain objected, arguing that the freighter had been in Turkish waters. On 27 December,

5358-404: The early 19th century that was used for literary and official purposes in the newly formed Greek state. In 1976, Dimotiki was declared the official language of Greece, after having incorporated features of Katharevousa and thus giving birth to Standard Modern Greek , used today for all official purposes and in education . The historical unity and continuing identity between the various stages of

5452-530: The east islet undetected. On the 30th of January, Turkish and Greek officials gave statements, each insisting on their sovereign rights on Imia. Also, Turkish armored units moved to the Green Line on Cyprus , which caused the alert of the Cypriot National Guard . On 31 January at 1:40 am Turkish special forces SAT Commandos also landed on the west islet escalating the tensions. Around 3 hours later,

5546-602: The epics of Homer , ancient Greek literature includes many works of lasting importance in the European canon . Greek is also the language in which many of the foundational texts in science and philosophy were originally composed. The New Testament of the Christian Bible was also originally written in Greek. Together with the Latin texts and traditions of the Roman world , the Greek texts and Greek societies of antiquity constitute

5640-505: The executive authority and the privilege to oversee governmental affairs to the prime minister, who was to be appointed by the president of the republic . Although the Presidency was established as a symbolic office with the president being unaccountable for his actions, Presidents Atatürk and İnönü had exercised executive authority as the leader of their party during the one-party period. Multi-party period (1945–2018) Prior to

5734-452: The following periods: In the modern era, the Greek language entered a state of diglossia : the coexistence of vernacular and archaizing written forms of the language. What came to be known as the Greek language question was a polarization between two competing varieties of Modern Greek: Dimotiki , the vernacular form of Modern Greek proper, and Katharevousa , meaning 'purified', a compromise between Dimotiki and Ancient Greek developed in

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5828-439: The infinitive entirely (employing a raft of new periphrastic constructions instead) and uses participles more restrictively. The loss of the dative led to a rise of prepositional indirect objects (and the use of the genitive to directly mark these as well). Ancient Greek tended to be verb-final, but neutral word order in the modern language is VSO or SVO. Modern Greek inherits most of its vocabulary from Ancient Greek, which in turn

5922-497: The islets. Greek and Turkish officials provided assurances to the United States that their military forces on and arrayed around the islets would be removed, with the U.S. agreeing to monitor the withdrawal. While US engagement was instrumental in defusing the crisis, the fundamental territorial issue has remained unresolved since that time. In January 2016, Greek Defence Minister, Panos Kammenos , flew over eastern Aegean Sea in

6016-463: The late 15th century BC, was the first script used to write Greek. It is basically a syllabary , which was finally deciphered by Michael Ventris and John Chadwick in the 1950s (its precursor, Linear A , has not been deciphered and most likely encodes a non-Greek language). The language of the Linear B texts, Mycenaean Greek , is the earliest known form of Greek. Another similar system used to write

6110-621: The membership of Greece and Cyprus in the European Union, Greek is one of the organization's 24 official languages . Greek is recognized as a minority language in Albania, and used co-officially in some of its municipalities, in the districts of Gjirokastër and Sarandë . It is also an official minority language in the regions of Apulia and Calabria in Italy. In the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , Greek

6204-441: The modern period. The division into conventional periods is, as with all such periodizations, relatively arbitrary, especially because, in all periods, Ancient Greek has enjoyed high prestige, and the literate borrowed heavily from it. Across its history, the syllabic structure of Greek has varied little: Greek shows a mixed syllable structure, permitting complex syllabic onsets but very restricted codas. It has only oral vowels and

6298-453: The newly promulgated Constitution of 1961 reduced the powers of the government considerably, strengthening parliamentary supervision over the cabinet. These features of the constitution resulted in a fractured political system, causing many short-lived coalition governments to be formed until 1980. In the aftermath of the 1980 Turkish coup d'état , the Constitution of 1982 (still in use)

6392-399: The noun they modify and relative pronouns are clause-initial. However, the morphological changes also have their counterparts in the syntax, and there are also significant differences between the syntax of the ancient and that of the modern form of the language . Ancient Greek made great use of participial constructions and of constructions involving the infinitive, and the modern variety lacks

6486-521: The objects of study of the discipline of Classics . During antiquity , Greek was by far the most widely spoken lingua franca in the Mediterranean world . It eventually became the official language of the Byzantine Empire and developed into Medieval Greek . In its modern form , Greek is the official language of Greece and Cyprus and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union . It

6580-706: The older periods of Greek, loanwords into Greek acquired Greek inflections, thus leaving only a foreign root word. Modern borrowings (from the 20th century on), especially from French and English, are typically not inflected; other modern borrowings are derived from Albanian , South Slavic ( Macedonian / Bulgarian ) and Eastern Romance languages ( Aromanian and Megleno-Romanian ). Greek words have been widely borrowed into other languages, including English. Example words include: mathematics , physics , astronomy , democracy , philosophy , athletics , theatre, rhetoric , baptism , evangelist , etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as

6674-480: The opposite side. For instance, a national road map sponsored by the Turkish Ministry of Defense, published just before the crisis, shows Imia (Limnia) as Greek territory. There are other Turkish maps of before 1996 that show Imia as Greek. However, the cartographic evidence of before 1996 is so mixed that the only safe conclusion one can draw from it is that neither of the two governments ever bothered to enforce

6768-547: The original contracting party of the 1932 border protocol, stated on 6 February 1996 that it considered the protocol valid, thus lending support to the Greek position. The European Union backed the Greek side on the Imia Islets dispute, and warned Turkey to refrain from any military operations against Greek sovereignty, and, along with the European Parliament , called Turkey to solve any disputes it has with Greece through

6862-435: The present-day Turkish argument, does not bear the formal characteristics of an international treaty. The Greek side now holds that it nevertheless constitutes compelling evidence that the Turkish government of the time had made a binding commitment to accepting the delimitation as described in the protocol. The Turkish side holds that the protocol is not binding as an international treaty and therefore has no value whatsoever for

6956-423: The realm of authority of the cabinet ministries (with the exclusion of the prime ministry) was drastically reduced, placing the ministers under the direct supervision of the prime minister. Later on, numerous amendments were made on the constitution, with the ones of paramount importance being the 2007 , 2010 , and 2017 . Some of the changes approved by public vote were highly controversial. According to some,

7050-502: The resolution of the present dispute. Italy ceded the Dodecanese islands to Greece with the 1947 Treaty of Paris . Article 14 enumerates the islands to be transferred to Greek sovereignty, and states that adjacent islets are to be transferred. The Turkish and Greek sides dispute the meaning of the term. Turkey claims that Imia does not fit into the definition stipulated by the Article 14 of

7144-451: The rights to these islands were ceded by Italy to Greece with the 1947 Treaty of Paris . However, the Treaty of Lausanne does not mention every single small island by name, but treats them summarily. Accordingly, at the heart of the legal issue of Imia is the question whether these islands, by virtue of their geographic situation, fall under the scope of the renunciation of sovereignty and the cession to Italy as defined by certain articles of

7238-667: The special boat flotilla, probably charted the Turkish name of these islets, Kardak, and attributed them to Turkey. It is well possible that when the whole Dodecanese was ceded to Greece in 1947, these islets may not have been included in official maps because of the wartime experience of a British naval officer. It appears, in short, that contradictory cartographic evidence in this field has been caused either by wartime mistakes, mere inattention or inadvertent proliferation of previous technical mistakes. It does not necessarily reflect consistent legal opinions or policies of either side. The conflicting cartographic evidence may nevertheless be one of

7332-437: The stressed vowel; the so-called breathing marks ( rough and smooth breathing ), originally used to signal presence or absence of word-initial /h/; and the diaeresis , used to mark the full syllabic value of a vowel that would otherwise be read as part of a diphthong. These marks were introduced during the course of the Hellenistic period. Actual usage of the grave in handwriting saw a rapid decline in favor of uniform usage of

7426-482: The three-mile boundary once and for all, and that the criterion of "dependency" must be understood in a rather wide sense as covering everything in the whole general area of the Dodecanese outside the three-mile limit, in order to give the provisions of the treaty an inherently consistent meaning. Turkey, on the other hand, claims that the criterion of "dependency" must be understood in a narrow sense, and that formations such as Imia may therefore constitute "grey zones" that

7520-445: The treaty has left undecided; or indeed that Turkish sovereignty over them still holds. After the Treaty of Lausanne, a dispute arose between Turkey and Italy over some other small islands, not directly related to the area of Imia. This dispute was settled through a compromise, which was sealed in a bilateral treaty in 1932 at Ankara. As an appendix to that treaty, the two governments formally assured each other that they now considered

7614-415: The treaty. After the 1996 crisis, the Turkish and Greek governments have made various claims that certain diplomatic exchanges between Turkey and Italy after 1932, and between Turkey and Greece after 1947, provided proof that the respective opponents at that time held legal opinions different from what they claim today, making their present stance inconsistent and untenable. Thus, Turkey has claimed that both

7708-474: The truth “as always”. The next day footage was revealed showing the Turkish patrol boat ramming the Greek boat. Also, Turkey has started to build a watchtower, a facility to accommodate soldiers and a pier on the nearby islet of Çavuş Adası . Thermal cameras will be installed on the island to enable the Turkish Coast Guard to monitor naval activities around the islets. The crucial point of reference for

7802-496: The two countries for decades, conflicts over the possession of island territory were unknown until the end of 1995. Until 1985 Turkish hydrographic maps recognised the course of the Greek-Turkish border halfway between Imia and the Turkish coast. The dispute over Imia arose when, on 26 December 1995, the Turkish cargo ship Figen Akat accidentally ran aground on the east islet and had to be salvaged . A Greek tugboat responded to

7896-414: The whole remaining Dodecanese border between them to be uncontroversial, and appointed a bilateral technical committee to trace its exact delimitation cartographically. The committee produced a technical protocol that was signed by envoys of the two foreign ministries in the same year. This protocol mentions Imia explicitly, as being on the Italian (i.e. later Greek) side. The protocol itself, according to

7990-568: Was a distinct dialect of Greek itself. Aside from the Macedonian question, current consensus regards Phrygian as the closest relative of Greek, since they share a number of phonological, morphological and lexical isoglosses , with some being exclusive between them. Scholars have proposed a Graeco-Phrygian subgroup out of which Greek and Phrygian originated. Among living languages, some Indo-Europeanists suggest that Greek may be most closely related to Armenian (see Graeco-Armenian ) or

8084-549: Was also used as the official language of government and religion in the Christian Nubian kingdoms , for most of their history. Greek, in its modern form, is the official language of Greece, where it is spoken by almost the entire population. It is also the official language of Cyprus (nominally alongside Turkish ) and the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia (alongside English ). Because of

8178-546: Was also used in Ancient Greek. Greek has occasionally been written in the Latin script , especially in areas under Venetian rule or by Greek Catholics . The term Frankolevantinika / Φραγκολεβαντίνικα applies when the Latin script is used to write Greek in the cultural ambit of Catholicism (because Frankos / Φράγκος is an older Greek term for West-European dating to when most of (Roman Catholic Christian) West Europe

8272-464: Was defused primarily by American officials—in particular, US envoy Richard Holbrooke , working by telephone with officials of both sides during the final hours of the crisis. The Greeks and Turks did not speak directly to one another but were responsive to Washington's assistance as an informal intermediary. Agreement was given by both sides to the United States to return to the "status quo ante"—i.e., differing views on sovereignty and no military forces on

8366-413: Was drawn to this fact in 2004, it was quick to admit that Zouka was in fact Turkish and that the attribution to Greece had been a mere technical mistake, since Zouka in fact lies on the Turkish side of the demarcation line of the 1932 protocol. Some of the existing cartographic problems can probably be traced back to a 1946–47 British cartographic survey conducted by the crew of HMS Childers . According to

8460-455: Was implemented. Even though the Constitution of 1982 was quite similar to its predecessor, there were new measures taken to avoid the formation of short-lived coalition governments. These measures included the introduction of 10% electoral threshold, unicameral parliamentary structure, and enforced executive powers. Along with broad executive powers being vested in the post of the prime minister,

8554-458: Was on board at the time. In February 2018, Greek authorities said that a Turkish coast guard patrol vessel rammed a Greek coast guard boat near the islets. Nobody was injured, but the Greek vessel suffered damage to the stern where the Turkish boat rammed it with its bow. Greece complained to Turkey about the incident. Turkey's Foreign Ministry denied the Turkish vessel was at fault. It said the Greek statement misled Greece's own public and distorted

8648-455: Was only to lower the Turkish flag, resulting in an exchange of fierce statements by the Turkish prime minister Tansu Çiller and the new Greek prime minister Kostas Simitis . Turkish and Greek naval forces were alerted and warships of both countries, both NATO members, sailed to the islets. [REDACTED]   Greece [REDACTED]   Turkey During the crisis, in the night of 28 January, Greek special forces landed secretly on

8742-566: Was under the control of the Frankish Empire ). Frankochiotika / Φραγκοχιώτικα (meaning 'Catholic Chiot') alludes to the significant presence of Catholic missionaries based on the island of Chios . Additionally, the term Greeklish is often used when the Greek language is written in a Latin script in online communications. The Latin script is nowadays used by the Greek-speaking communities of Southern Italy . The Yevanic dialect

8836-653: Was written by Romaniote and Constantinopolitan Karaite Jews using the Hebrew Alphabet . In a tradition, that in modern time, has come to be known as Greek Aljamiado , some Greek Muslims from Crete wrote their Cretan Greek in the Arabic alphabet . The same happened among Epirote Muslims in Ioannina . This also happened among Arabic-speaking Byzantine rite Christians in the Levant ( Lebanon , Palestine, and Syria ). This usage

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