Disagreement over Greek marine park plan resurfaces
Remarks made by Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan have highlighted the ongoing disagreement between the two Aegean rivals over Greece’s plan to create a marine park in the Aegean Sea.
The comments on Tuesday followed a meeting between Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara the day before.
Speaking to state broadcaster ERT, Gerapetritis said that the park will be established once the study phase for determining the technical environmental criteria is completed. “When these are completed, then the park will be placed on the map,” he said, adding that the issue concerns “not only Greek sovereignty but also the environment.”
Speaking during a press conference with his Austrian counterpart Alexander Schallenberg in Ankara, Fidan said that Turkey does not view the plan as an “innocent environmental project” but rather as a potential violation of his country’s “red line,” particularly concerning the bilateral continental shelf dispute.
He added that Turkey had put its concerns about the marine park “on record” during the Mitsotakis-Erdogan meeting.
“An understanding in principle has been reached for both sides to avoid unilateral actions. Both sides agree that no unilateral steps should be taken and that existing problems should be discussed, no matter how difficult they are,” he said.
Greece announced plans to create two large marine parks as part of a 780-million-euro ($830 million) program to protect biodiversity and marine ecosystems during an international oceans conference in Athens last month.
The plan includes creating one marine park in the Aegean Sea and one in the Ionian Sea, bringing the total marine protected areas to over 30 percent of its waters.
