# The Imia crisis

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "The Imia crisis," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/imia-crisis/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*The 1996 confrontation between Greece and Turkey over an uninhabited Aegean islet, which John Kiriakou cites as the last time the two came close to exchanging fire, a flag raised, a flag taken down, warships dispatched, and Bill Clinton telephoning both capitals to tell them to stop.*

- **When:** During the Clinton administration
- **What was disputed:** An uninhabited islet, 'it has only a herd of goats'
- **Sequence:** Turkish flag raised; Greek Coast Guard removed it and raised a Greek flag; ships sent
- **How it ended:** Bill Clinton telephoned both sides 'and told them to cut it out'
- **Kiriakou''s point:** The last time the two came close to actual gunfire

Asked in April 2024 whether Greece and Turkey might come to blows, [John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou) said he thought there was *"no chance of a conflict"*, while conceding that the language was alarming. *"There's very disturbing rhetoric going back and forth. When the Turkish defence minister says that Turkey has a plan to take all of Greece's Aegean islands in 48 hours, or that Turkey has a strategic plan to launch ballistic missiles on Athens, which of course is a population centre, you have to take those kinds of threats seriously. But the Turks always talk like that, and very rarely do they come close to actual shooting."*[1][2]

## The last near miss

*"The last time they came close to the actual exchange of gunfire was during the Clinton administration, and it was over an islet called Imia which doesn't even have people on it, it has only a herd of goats. It's a Greek island, but the Turks put the Turkish flag [there], then the Greek Coast Guard went, they took it down, they put a Greek flag [up], and then their ships went, and Bill Clinton had to call both sides and tell them to cut it out."*[2][3]

What he considers the more serious source of friction between the two countries is not territorial but economic: [the gas discovered off Cyprus](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/eastern-mediterranean-gas).[3]

## See also

- [The Eastern Mediterranean gas field](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/eastern-mediterranean-gas)
- [Kiriakou's Greek citizenship](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/kiriakou-greek-citizenship)
- [The Green Line in Nicosia](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/cyprus-green-line)
- [Israel, Turkey, and NATO Article 5](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/israel-turkey-nato-article-5)
- [Bill Clinton](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/bill-clinton)

## Sources

1. Iran-Israel Possible Open War (2024-04-18), at 32:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXpQfO_oTsQ&t=1932s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-04-18-dr-david-oualaalou-iran-israel-possible-open-war/
2. Iran-Israel Possible Open War (2024-04-18), at 32:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXpQfO_oTsQ&t=1964s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-04-18-dr-david-oualaalou-iran-israel-possible-open-war/
3. Iran-Israel Possible Open War (2024-04-18), at 33:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXpQfO_oTsQ&t=1994s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2024-04-18-dr-david-oualaalou-iran-israel-possible-open-war/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/imia-crisis/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt