Cavusoglu warns Greece over Aegean
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu reiterated Wednesday his country’s position that an extension of Greece’s territorial waters beyond 6 nautical miles in the eastern Aegean would constitute a “cause for war” (casus belli).
In a speech, Cavusoglu mentioned the option of resolving Turkey’s differences with Greece with legal arguments and a bilateral dialogue, but proposed a broad agenda that has been rejected by Athens, such as the demilitarization of the Aegean islands that Greece gained from Turkey in a 1912-13 war, as well as the Dodecanese, occupied by Italy in its 1911-12 war with Turkey, and which eventually became Greek territory in 1947.
Greece maintains a 6-nautical mile zone of territorial waters in the eastern Aegean, while having extended it to 12 miles in the Ionian Sea. The extension is compatible with the international law of the sea, but applying it to the Aegean would mean that ships sailing out of the Bosporus Strait would inevitably have to pass through Greek waters, thus having to ask for permission to do so. Under the present, 6-mile regime, corridors of international waters exist. In the several cases of Greek islands close to the Turkish coast, law dictates a median distance between the two countries’ coasts.
“Let me make something clear… we won’t even allow a unilateral extension of territorial waters [by Greece] by a single mile,” Cavusoglu said. “We do not accept a fait accompli that will turn the Aegean into a Greek lake, hem us in on our coasts and damage our legal and vital interests. The decision taken by the Turkish Parliament on June 8, 1995 [declaring such an extension a cause for war] is still in effect. This is not a threat of war, it’s a declaration of our determination to defend our rights and interests in the Aegean at any cost,” Cavusoglu added.
Cavusoglu also repeated Turkey’s positions claiming the sovereignty of some smaller Aegean islands is undetermined and the refusal to accept that islands have a continental shelf of their own.
The Turkish foreign minister also expressed his annoyance at the US for favoring Greece in some of its disputes with Turkey.
