Turkish warships have been testing the patience of the Hellenic Navy by increasing their transit through Greek waters, it emerged yesterday.

In the sixth incident this year, the corvette Bozcaada on Sunday set off from the Lebanese coast for Izmir in Turkey – via Cape Sounion south of Athens. Defense officials worry about the message Turkey wants to convey with these legal yet ostensibly aimless transits. Defense Minister Evangelos Venizelos spoke of “the barely innocent passage of a Turkish warship through our territorial waters.” The Bozcaada, part of an international operation in the Aegean, was relieved by another Turkish vessel on Sunday. But upon its return voyage, instead of taking the shorter route along the Turkish coast to Izmir, it went northwest toward Rhodes, from there to Serifos and on to the strait between Sounion and Kea before heading east, past Evia and Skyros.