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Verbally, the dispute between Greece and Turkey over the Aegean has reached another level of escalation: if Greece were to expand its territorial waters, that would be a reason for war, he said from Ankara.
In the dispute over the course of the maritime border with Greece, the Turkish government has once again hardened the tone. If Greece expanded its territorial waters in the Aegean, that would be “a reason for war,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said. And Vice President Fuat Oktay said, according to the state Anadolu news agency: “If this is not a reason for war, what else?”
“Against international political culture”
The Greek Foreign Ministry reacted promptly: Turkey’s tactic of threatening its neighbors with war if they tried to implement their legal rights was “against international political culture.” However, as early as 1995, the Turkish parliament declared that the expansion of Greek territorial waters in the Aegean Sea was a reason for war for Turkey.
The current context is apparently an announcement from the Greek government on Wednesday. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis had declared in parliament that Greece was expanding its sovereign area in the Ionian Sea from six to twelve nautical miles.
The Ionian Sea is not between Greece and Turkey, but between Greece and Italy. Mitsotakis said the Athens government was ready to enter into dialogue with Turkey on the definition of the continental shelf and the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. The EEZ describes the marine area that extends beyond the territorial waters of a country.
However, the Athens announcement was apparently seen more of a threat in Ankara. In the Aegean Sea, Greece has a bitter dispute with Turkey over marine areas. Turkey seeks oil and gas deposits in waters for which Greece claims exclusive rights of use because the islands belong to its territory. The Turkish government argues against islands not being considered when calculating maritime borders between countries.
Under international law, defining maritime boundaries is really complicated and states interpret it differently, said Nele Matz-Lück, interpreter of the law of the sea. tagesschau.de-Interview explained. In the case of the Aegean, it is particularly explosive that there are several Greek islands that are far from mainland Greece, but directly off the coast of Turkey.
