[AP]
The announcement last Monday by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of two marine parks, one each in the Aegean and Ionian seas, was criticized by Turkey as a unilateral move that changes nothing in the bilateral legal disputes over the Aegean. Now Greece is awaiting Ankara’s riposte in the form of its own sea parks.
Since Greece had already made it known that it intended to create these parks, Greek officials are convinced that Ankara has its own maps ready. They are interested to see whether Turkey’s parks will overlap with Greece’s or, alternately, whether they will include islets belonging to Greece.
Part of Turkey’s objection stems from the fact that the Aegean marine park contains some small islands and islets that Turkey claims are of “undetermined sovereignty.” This dovetails with Turkey’s wider claim that there exist “gray zones” in the Aegean whose sovereignty has not been determined by any international treaty. This is a claim that can be easily debunked by even a critical reading of all relevant treaties.
In any case, Greece seems to have taken into account some of Turkey’s objections, or simply chose to give it fewer reasons to provoke tensions. The area of the proposed marine parks is significantly smaller than originally envisaged.
Another issue that has become a sticking point in bilateral relations concerns the Great Sea Interconnector linking Greece’s and Cyprus’ (and, eventually, Israel’s) power grids. Turkey has blocked works beyond Greece’s territorial waters near the island of Karpathos. Greece considers Turkey’s reaction to the project disproportional and points out that it does not affect sovereign rights.