Greek fishermen from nearby Kalymnos said a Turkish coast guard crew threatened them on Thursday while they were working at sea in Greek territorial waters near the Imia islets. The encounter was reported about 1.7 nautical miles west of Imia and roughly two nautical miles from Kalolimnos.

Konstantinos Saroukos said the Turkish craft turned its forward-mounted heavy machine gun toward the Greek vessel and pointed the.50-calibre weapon directly at them. Video footage recorded by the fishermen appears to show the Turkish boat maneuvering at very close range, and the fishermen said it pulled away once the crew realized they were being filmed.

The episode ended without further escalation after a Hellenic Coast Guard patrol boat notified the Turkish vessel, which then withdrew. For the fishermen involved, the encounter was another reminder of how quickly a routine day at sea can turn tense in a corner of the Aegean that has long carried political weight.

The Imia islets remain one of the most sensitive points in Greek-Turkish relations. Ankara re-christened the two islets Kardak, while Greece says they are part of its sovereignty under international treaties that transferred the Dodecanese islands from Italy to Greece in 1947. The dispute sharpened dramatically in January 1996, when Greece and Turkey deployed military and naval forces to the area and came close to armed confrontation before a US-mediated de-escalation.

That crisis did not settle the broader argument. Since 1996, the Imia area has stayed a frequent site of friction involving coast guard vessels and fishing activity, and Athens rejects any notion of disputed sovereignty over the islets, saying Turkey’s claims challenge established borders. Thursday’s incident fits that pattern: a brief confrontation, a filmed warning, and a withdrawal that left the deeper dispute untouched.

For now, the sea around Imia remains what it has been for years — a place where fishing boats, patrol craft and old claims keep meeting within sight of one another.