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ANKARA, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Turkey accused Greece on Friday of breaching international law by carrying out a military exercise on an island in the Aegean Sea.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry said the exercise was a breach of the Paris Peace Treaties in 1947 that banned all such training on the islands.
It added that Greek special forces had recently parachuted onto the island of Kos, known in Turkish as Istankoy.
"An exercise toward Istankoy is an open breach of international law," said Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Huseyin Muftuoglu in a statement.
"We call on our neighbor Greece to refrain from unilateral actions that could trigger tensions and that are against international law," he added.
He also said that Turkey will not avoid necessary steps in line with the country's political and legal statuses regarding the Aegean Sea.
Kos is part of the Dodecanese chain of islands, which was placed under demilitarization as part of the Paris Peace Treaties in 1947 after World War II, when Italy ceded them to Greece.
Tensions between Turkey and Greece have been on the rise since a Greek court last week blocked the extradition of eight Turkish soldiers that Ankara accuses of involvement in the failed coup attempt of July 15, 2016. Turkey said relations with Greece would be reviewed.
Following the Greece court order, relations continued to strain after Turkish Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar, accompanied by the commanders of Turkey's land, naval and air forces, paid a visit on Jan. 29 to the islets of Kardak, known as Imia in Greek, on which Turkey and Greece both lay claim, Turkish Hurriyet News added.
On Jan. 31, two Greek coast guard vessels passed the Kardak islets and entered Turkish territorial waters when Turkish coast guard vessels intervened and forced the Greek vessels to leave, Dogan News Agency reported.
Greek Defense Minister Panos Kammenos on Wednesday flew over the air space of the Kardak islets, about one nautical mile from Turkey's touristic resort district of Bodrum.
He flew to leave a wreath in the Aegean Sea in memory of three Greek soldiers who died in a helicopter accident during the 1996 crisis between the two countries over the sovereignty of the islets.
