Lemnos

By Debbie D E Papadakis

Days before the 100th anniversary commemoration of the Gallipoli Campaign, Ankara has discovered a military graveyard for Ottoman soldiers on a Greek island where Turkish and Egyptian soldiers were buried by British forces.

By Nikos Vatopoulos

These days, it?s easy to forget the role that the northeastern Aegean island of Lemnos played in the First World War. However, with the centenary of the Gallipoli Campaign coming up on April 25, that looks set to change.

Limnos, a small island in the north of the Aegean Sea is the ideal destination for nature lovers, as it offers miles and miles of golden sand beaches, rugged landscapes of volcanic rock and fertile plains.

The Turkish government did an "about face" on Monday from its original plan to reserve a large chuck of the northern Aegean for a military drill - purportedly in regions between Greek islands - and until the end of the year!

Two police officers were among a group of nine people detained over drug trafficking charges on the Aegean islands of Lemnos and Aghios Efstratios late on Monday.

According to the police case file, the members of the criminal ring allegedly used scheduled ferry or courier services to transport the illegal substances from Athens to Lemnos and Aghios Efstratios.

Efforts to boost the number of coast guard officers serving on Aegean islands where authorities have to deal with large numbers of undocumented migrants who are smuggled by traffickers from Turkey appear to have failed.

A total of 124 buildings on the island of Lemnos have been declared too dangerous to be inhabited following a 6.4-Richter earthquake on May 24.

State engineers have so far checked just over 300 buildings on the northern Aegean island.

Inspections are continuing.

Coast guard officers intercepted 36 undocumented immigrants on Thursday off the coast of Lemnos in the eastern Aegean.

The officers seized the rubber dinghy in which the migrants had traveled to the island from neighboring Turkey and detained them.

Their ethnic origins remained unclear.

Dozens of aftershocks rattled the northern Aegean islands of Lemnos and Samothraki yesterday following Saturday’s strong undersea quake, measuring 6.3 on the Richter scale, which led to a British tourist being injured on Lemnos and dozens of injuries in western Turkey.