In 1995, the Turkish parliament declared the expansion of Greek territorial waters in the Aegean Sea as a "ground for war" between Greece and Turkey. And just before Erdogan's meeting with Mitsotakis, new disputes arose.
A meeting at the highest level is scheduled for Monday, February 9th - the Supreme Council for Cooperation between Greece and Turkey is to meet in Ankara. And if all goes according to plan, both Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis should be present. A meeting between the two is also possible.
The Supreme Cooperation Council was founded in 2010 after difficult times of conflicts in the eastern Mediterranean. So far, it has not achieved great success, but it is making efforts for positive development in relations between the two NATO partners, especially in the areas of economy and tourism. So far, the council has met only five times, most recently in December 2023 in Athens.
“Turkey is raising unilateral demands and territorial claims that have no legal basis and cannot be seriously debated”, said Konstantinos Filis, director of the Athens Institute of International Relations, in an interview with DW. “Greece expects Turkey to always fulfill the demands and make concessions”, countered Fuat Aksu, a political scientist at the Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul.
The new source of controversy NAVTEX
Since then, there have been no significant changes. And the sources of controversy have increased after last Thursday Turkey warned through the Navtex system used in shipping about risks related to security and Greek military activity in the Aegean Sea. There have been similar warnings in the past.
This is not least about dominance in the Aegean Sea and security issues. Athens speaks of an illegal attempt by the neighboring country to increase the area of its territorial waters. The renowned Greek weekly “To Vima” defines this as “a new Turkish provocation”.
For the Turkish side, the issue is reduced to a routine procedure corresponding to the current legal situation. But there may be more: "Navtex has caused panic in Greece and changed the status quo in the Aegean," wrote the pro-government newspaper "Türkiye."
For Greek Prime Minister Mitsotakis, the Navtex dispute means even more pressure from the right. "Turkey is taking half of the Aegean, but our government sees no reason to worry," said Kyriakos Velopoulos, leader of the right-wing populist party "Greek Solution," which ranks third in the voter list.
An eternal dispute despite the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
Greece and Turkey have been arguing for decades about the continental shelf off the Turkish coast, the exploitation of raw materials and the possible expansion of territorial waters in the Aegean. In addition, within the framework of their current "Blue Homeland" doctrine Turkey claims maritime territories covering an area of over 450,000 square kilometers off its coast.
The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea serves as the legal compass in such cases, but Turkey has not signed it. However, it could be applied: according to the prevailing opinion of lawyers, this treaty reflects current international law and is therefore binding on those who have not signed it.
No prospect of reaching an agreement
According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, in principle, each state can define its territorial waters to a maximum length of 12 nautical miles. However, there is one important exception: those affected must reach an agreement bilaterally in the event of unclear boundaries or overlaps. But such an agreement between Greece and Turkey has never been reached.
Back in 1995, the Turkish parliament declared the expansion of Greek territorial waters in the Aegean Sea a “ground for war”. Because in this case, the Aegean Sea would become a kind of Greek internal sea. In 2021, the government in Athens expanded its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles in the Ionian Sea towards Italy. Today, Greece explicitly reserves the right to expand its territorial waters in the Aegean Sea as well, Defense Minister Nikos Dendias said recently on television.
The final instance on all matters of international law is the International Court of Justice in The Hague. But it cannot be activated on its own initiative - both Greece and Turkey must submit a joint application for this purpose and authorize the court to act as an arbitrator. Debates on this issue have been ongoing since 1976, but so far without result.