Greek islands have no continental shelf, Cavusoglu says

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has reiterated Ankara’s contentious claim that islands that lie far from the Greek mainland, including Kastellorizo in the southeastern Aegean, are not entitled to generate continental shelves.

“We say that not every island can have a continental shelf. In particular, the islands that are far from the mainland and closer to Turkey cannot have a continental shelf,” Cavusoglu said during an interview on Turkish television in which he presented several maps outlining the country’s claims in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.

Speaking of Kastellorizo, Cavusoglu said that an island which is located 2 kilometers away from the Turkish coast and 570 kilometers away from the Greek mainland could not possibly generate a 40,000 square kilometer maritime zone.

“We were saying that this cannot be the case, but Greece had these dreams,” Cavusoglu said.