Military Chios, August 2013

  

On the Aegean sea border between Turkey mainland and Chios, one of the closest islands of Greece you can see the Turkish Cesme castle, a very nice XIV century Genoese fortification later modified by the  Ottomans.

Already in Chios you can see the presence of the Greek navy with several ships. In this case a patrol boat (Wikipedia on the Greek navy calls P 287, HS Kelevstis Stamou).

There was also a small vedette of the Greek navy. Couldn't find anything on this one but looks pretty cool!

Inside Chios itself the previous ottoman fort had the opposition of a Byzantine/ Genoese style castle.

The multi coloured stone gives a particular beauty to the site.

The sloping walls shows the concern with    artillery. There are also emplacements for its own artillery where is still visible a sort of bombard.

The doubled walled city of Mesta is a Genoese site built to protect the mastic production of the island. The site forms a fantastic maze intended to make life hard to any raider or attacker.

There are numbers of entrances on the first wall that are never coincident with the ones in the second.

The streets are driven into a beautiful square.

There is monument to all who fell defending Mesta in the 20th century wars.

This monument also had a fuel depot from, apparently, a WWII bomber.

The island is filled with old stone watch towers that survey a breathtaking sight.

Back to Izmir you can see at the military port many ships, namely the  NL125 Osman Gazi-class landing ship-tank built in the early 1990s.   

According to Wikipedia, "Osman Gazi is a landing ship which can carry up to 3773 tons which includes 900 armed troops as well as 15 tanks and also 4 LCVP's. It has a crew of 109 which 9 of them are officers. The ship is armed with 2x 40/70mm,1x 35/90mm and 2x 20mm. This ship also has a large space for a helicopter to land. Osman Gazi is named after the founder of the Ottomans and the full transliteration of Osman Gazi is Ottoman veteran."

Also in the Izmir bay, but on the Alsancak  side, there were these nice patrol boats from the maritime police.

Of course much more beautiful than military subjects are the beaches and other places in the area, like Mavra Volia, an outstanding beach at the south of Chios.

Both Greece and Turkey are two fantastic countries plunged into deep crisis, the former economical and the later political. 

As one of the many symbols of resistance of the Turkish people you can see everywhere the Woman  in Red, a revolutionary symbol caught  on camera of a peaceful demonstrator being gas sprayed.

This one is painted on the sidewalk and you can see it everywhere.

Syria should not make the Europeans forget what is happening in Turkey following the Gezi park events, with repression and the toughning of governmental policies.