THE DISPUTE between Turkey and Greece over a rock in the Aegean was fanned by an attention seeking "flag race" by journalists amid the impasse in Turkey's political scene, analysts say, Suna Erdem writes from Ankara.
"They then journalists are on the point of causing a Turco Greek war and then saying We were first on the scene, here are the first pictures of the war" a columnist, Koray Duzgoren, wrote yesterday in the liberal Yeni Yuzyll daily.
The dispute, provoked after a Turkish ship ran aground and refused a Greek offer of help, erupted in the Turkish media at the weekend. A group of Turkish journalists ripped a Greek flag from the uninhabited rock just off the Turkish coast and replaced it with a Turkish one.
Pictures of this were carried on the front page of their daily, Hurriyet, prompting angry diplomatic traffic between Athens and Ankara on Monday and yesterday. The newspaper's sister television channel is now busily distributing video footage of the same deed.
Turkish journalists yesterday went out to test the Greek resolve with cameras running not to let Turks near the rock, by trying to land from hired boats and helicopters while warships circled nearby.
Let us not be at all surprised if Turkish and Greek television reporters are henceforth party to diplomatic talks," said Derya Sazak, political analyst at Milliyet daily.
The saga now dominates the Turkish media, tired of the endless wranglings of politicians who have failed to form a government nearly a month after inconclusive general elections.
It follows another saturation coverage story that of the marriage of a 13 year old British girl to a Turkish youth, who was later arrested after British and Turkish reporters brought the under age marriage to light.
"The waves of empty words emanating from the smoky rooms of Ankara has finally bored everyone and we have as a nation gone out to find new sources of entertainment," Yeni Yuzyil wrote in an editorial.
Taking a main role in their own front page story is not unusual for Turkish journalists. Two weeks ago, during a ship hijack by pro Chechen gunmen, television gave more coverage to the journalists who jumped to the boat from a helicopter than the hijack.
In the midst of the Bosnia war, a Turkish reporter wrote an article from the battleground which was headlined "I shot a Serb on the front."