Greece accused Turkey of violating international law

The Greek Foreign Ministry announced the illegality of Turkey's creation of two new "national marine parks" in the northeastern part of the Aegean Sea and in The Eastern Mediterranean.

The day before, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed decrees on the establishment of two new marine national parks — Fethiye-Kas between Mugla and Antalya and Kuzey Ege (Northern Aegean Sea) between Canakkale and Tekirdagom.

Greece is seeking to expand its territorial waters from six to 12 nautical miles — this is allowed by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Turkey has not signed this document. Both countries are members of NATO.

Ankara considers such an expansion a casus belli — if Greece expands the waters, it will block the Turkish access to the open sea — and periodically conducts geological exploration on the shelf, which Greece and Cyprus call part of their exclusive economic zones.

In disputes about how to divide the bottom of the sea, Greece counts from each island, Turkey — from the mainland.

According to the statement of the Greek Foreign Ministry, Turkish parks extend far beyond the territorial waters of Turkey.

"To the extent that the parks in question cover international waters, their creation is illegal, since no state, according to maritime law, is authorized to unilaterally create marine protected areas in territories outside national jurisdiction," the department stressed.

Athens separately pointed out that the new zones also affect the interests of Greece, since they are located within the Greek continental shelf.

The Greek side stressed that such actions will not change the status of maritime zones, but violate international law and "do not contribute to strengthening good-neighborly relations."