Ankara refutes Greek claims that it was forcing migrants into waters

Turkish authorities have rejected Greece's claims that a rubber dinghy full of migrants were escorted by two Turkish boats in the Aegean Sea out of Turkey's territory, by publishing footage debunking the allegations.

The Turkish Coast Guard said in a statement that an irregular migrant boat entered Greek territorial waters off Turkey's western province of İzmir's Dikili district at 9 a.m. local time and that Greek coast guard units tried to push the boat back into Turkish territorial waters by creating waves.

"Despite all the calls made to them, the Greek coast guard units pushed the migrants back into Turkish territorial waters instead of rescuing them, and a total of 32 irregular migrants in rubber boats were rescued by Turkish coast guard boats," the statement said.

"During the maneuvers of the Greek coast guard units to push the irregular migrants back, their violation of territorial waters was prevented by the maneuvers of the Turkish coast guard," the statement added.

The photograph published by the Greek coast guard on their official website along with the alleged information about the incident was used on April 2 and did not reflect the truth, according to the statement.

Athens accused Ankara on Nov. 9 of acting like a "pirate in the Aegean Sea, claiming that its coast guard escorted and tried to push into Greek waters a boat of migrants who were trying to illegally reach Greece.

"Once again Turkey has behaved like a 'pirate state' in the Aegean Sea, breaching its engagements with the European Union," Greek Maritime Affairs Minister Giannis Plakiotakis had said.

Meanwhile, a Dutch journalist on Nov. 9 accused Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of lying about pushbacks of migrants.

"Why do you...