Near-War Reparations, Mayor Fined Over Kardak

türkçe links to original Turkish article

(Hürriyet Newspaper, 6 July 2017)


Hard to believe - 2 countries nearly went to war over these rocks.

The former mayor of Kilimli (Kalımnos) Island in the Aegean Sea
near Bodrum, has been fined 50,000 Euros on the charge of inflicting
damage on state finances because he supported a shepherd on Kardak
Island at the height of Greek-Turkish tensions over Kardak in the mid-
1990s.

Dimitris Diakomichalis served as mayor of Kilimli from 1989 to 1996
and he sent shepherd Antonios Veziripolous (72) to Kardak, providing
him with money for food, fuel for his boat, hay for his goats and other
necessities.  The suit filed against Diakomichalis alleged that he had
harmed the state by allocating municipal funds to Veziripolous.


For his part, Diakomichalis asserted that "at that time, the municipal
council decided to allocate 6,000 Euros annually to the shepherd for
support because Kardak was under the Greek flag.   We had to provide
aid to Veziripolous since we were the island's local administration.
The shepherd died and we lost Kardak. Am I to blame? I don't accept
this and will seek justice."