evidence: On May 31 the Turkish General Staff (TGS) posted a statement on its website claiming that a boat belonging to the Greek coastguard had violated Turkish territorial waters close to the disputed island of Kardak/Imia off Turkey’s Aegean coast (Turkish General Staff website, www.tsk.gov.tr). [...] In early 1996 Greece and Turkey almost went to war over the sovereignty of Kardak/Imia. In February 2007 a planned NATO exercise close to the Greek island of Aghios Efstratios in the northern Aegean had to be cancelled when Turkey abruptly announced that the exercise would violate a requirement in the Treaty of Lausanne that the island remain demilitarized, a claim that was furiously denounced by Athens as being completely baseless. On May 16 Turkish objections again forced NATO to cancel another planned exercise close to Aghios Efstratios, leading Greek Foreign Ministry Spokesman Giorgos Koumoutsakos to warn that Turkish intransigence was having "negative repercussions" for NATO’s operational readiness (Athens News Agency, May 24). "This condition must change, and it is a standing desire on the part of Greece for this situation to change," said Koumoutsakos (Athens News Agency, May 24).