Greece has formally protested to Turkey over Ankara’s objections to Greek spatial planning frameworks and the creation of two national maritime parks, rejecting Turkish claims as lacking any legal basis under international law.
The protest was delivered by the Greek Embassy in Ankara to Turkey’s Foreign Ministry on the instructions of Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis. During the exchange, the Turkish side also delivered diplomatic notes reiterating positions it had previously made public, according to diplomatic sources.
The dispute centers on maritime zones, the status of islands in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, and competing claims over areas of jurisdiction.
Athens rejects Turkish objections
The Greek diplomatic note addressed both Turkey’s public statements concerning Greece’s Special Spatial Planning Frameworks and presidential decisions issued August 15 establishing two “national” maritime parks.
Athens categorically rejected the Turkish objections, arguing that they are not supported by international law.
“The regime of sovereignty in the Aegean has been clearly and definitively established by the relevant international treaties,” the Greek side said.
Greece also challenged the legal validity of Turkey’s declaration of its own “national” maritime parks to the extent that they extend beyond Turkish jurisdiction and into areas that Greece considers part of its continental shelf.
Greek officials have said Athens will continue to bring any unilateral Turkish action that it considers contrary to international law or damaging to Greek sovereignty and sovereign rights to the attention of its European and international partners.
Dispute over maritime zones
The latest exchange comes amid weeks of diplomatic tensions between Athens and Ankara over how maritime zones should be delineated.
Turkey has reiterated claims concerning its continental shelf extending toward the middle of the Aegean and has rejected Greek sovereign rights over its islands. Ankara has also revived its longstanding position on the demilitarization of Greek islands and questioned the status of certain islands, islets and rocks.
The issue was also raised in connection with Greece’s maritime parks, particularly the park in the southern Cyclades, which includes the Levitha island complex.
More recently, Turkey mapped two of its own maritime parks, located between Samothrace and Lemnos and between Rhodes and Kastellorizo. According to the report, the move prompted Ankara to restate a broad range of claims concerning maritime zones, spanning from the northern Aegean to the southeastern maritime borders of the two countries.
Turkey has warned that it would not allow activities that it considers to alter the status quo in the Aegean.
Greece Challenges Turkish maritime parks
Through its diplomatic protest, Athens again rejected Turkey’s declaration of “national” maritime parks wherever they extend beyond Turkish jurisdiction and into areas that Greece considers part of its continental shelf.
Greece argues that, under international law, maritime parks should be limited to a country’s territorial waters when they are established without prior agreement with neighboring states.
Alongside the diplomatic exchange, Turkey issued a NAVTEX concerning surveys in an area within the maritime park around Kastellorizo, according to the report.
Attention is also focused on the possible resumption of work on the Greece-Cyprus electricity interconnection project. The report says Turkey appears unwilling to withdraw its objections unless it is the side issuing the relevant NAVTEX notices, which would effectively reinforce its claims to jurisdiction east of the 28th meridian.
Athens seeks to keep diplomatic channels open
The Greek government has also raised the Turkish claims with European Union foreign ministers.
Diplomatic sources said Greece would continue to highlight unilateral actions that it considers violations of international law or threats to its sovereignty and sovereign rights before European and international partners.
At the same time, Greek officials have maintained that they want to keep communication channels with Ankara open.
The approach was also reflected in the recent visit to Athens by Ibrahim Kalin, head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization, known as MIT. Kalin met with his Greek counterpart, EYP chief Themistoklis Demiris, as the two countries seek to maintain communication on security and regional issues.
The discussions included the Aegean and Western Mediterranean, NATO security, intelligence cooperation, counterterrorism, organized crime, illegal migration and human trafficking. The two sides also discussed the war between the United States and Iran, developments in Syria, Libya’s political unity, the Palestinian issue and Israeli military operations in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria and Lebanon.
The intelligence chiefs agreed that recent cooperation between Greece and Turkey in combating terrorism and organized crime should continue and be strengthened, with the aim of giving it a more strategic dimension. They also agreed to further strengthen cooperation between their services on bilateral and regional issues.
Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are also expected to travel to New York in about two weeks to attend the United Nations General Assembly, although no meeting between them is currently scheduled.
Mitsotakis links Turkey’s EU path to good-neighbor relations
The dispute comes as Mitsotakis during talks with Antonio Costa, president of the European Council, has urged the European Union to take Turkey’s recent actions in the Aegean into account when considering its relations with Ankara.
Referring to the EU’s SAFE defense program, Mitsotakis said participation requires that the security interests of member states not be undermined.
“I remind you that a condition for participation in the SAFE program is that the security interests of member states are not harmed. I also want to inform the president about the recent escalation of Turkish provocations, particularly in the Aegean,” Mitsotakis said.
He also linked Turkey’s European prospects to respect for international law and good-neighborly relations.
“It is inconceivable to have an active threat of war and a questioning of Greek sovereignty from a country that expects to improve its relations with the European Union,” he said.
Mitsotakis added that Greece wants to support Turkey’s European path, but that it “cannot but go hand in hand with building good-neighborly relations.”
He also stressed that Greece would continue to determine its own defense policy.
“My country is a peaceful country that poses no threat to anyone. But it will not accept instructions from anyone on how it should strengthen its defense,” the prime minister said.
