Hurriyet sees Greek PM backing down on maritime border

Turkey’s Hurriyet newspaper said Wednesday that the Greek prime minister had backed down on the issue of maritime borders after Alexis Tsipras reportedly suggested that he may seek dialogue with opposition parties over the extension of Greece’s territorial waters in the Ionian Sea and that he wanted the matter to come to Parliament in a bill, not via presidential decree.

On Tuesday, Turkey warned Greece that if it extends its territorial waters in the Aegean from 6 to 12 nautical miles it will be a cause for war.

In a statement, Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy referred to a declaration by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in 1995 that if Greece unilaterally extended its territorial waters it would be a “casus belli” for Ankara.

The declaration, he said, “contains a necessary political warning and is still in force today,” adding that “our views and warnings have also been conveyed to the ambassador of Greece in Ankara.”