Press reports out of Turkey on Thursday cite sources within the country’s defense ministry as claiming that the Turkish armed forces will “take necessary interventions” against what’s being presented – at least on that side of the Aegean – as “Greek attempts” to violate national “rights and interests”.
The statements, while coming from unnamed sources and thus unofficial, relate to the latest instance of attempted Turkish interference in a maritime zone claimed by Greece as forming part of its prospective Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ).
Specifically, Athens expressed annoyance this week with the “shadowing” of two Italian-flagged research vessels by a Turkish navy corvette. The vessels have been contracted by the Greek side to conduct studies for the ambitious Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) project to lay an undersea power cable connecting Cyprus with Crete.
Although similar instances of interference and antagonism by Turkish vessels and aircraft in the eastern Aegean are not uncommon, the latest incident came as the buoy-laying ships were reportedly sailing some seven nautical miles north of the Aghios Nikolaos Gulf off the north shores of eastern Crete.
If the coordinates are accurate, that would mean that the Turkish corvette is operating some 190 nautical miles from the nearest Turkish coast (western Asia Minor), and within visual sight of Crete. Greek territorial waters in the Aegean extend to six nautical miles, although under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) Greece has the right to extend its territorial waters to 12 nautical. The latter right, under international law, is what successive Turkish governments and the country’s so-called “deep state” bitterly oppose, with the Turkish national assembly in 1996 passing a resolution, in fact, characterizing such a prospect as an occasion for war.
On its part, Athens has sent a frigate and a Hellenic Coast Guard patrol boat to the specific sea region.
