Turkey insisted on Monday that two marine protected areas it declared in the Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean fall within its maritime jurisdiction, a position Greece rejected a day earlier as illegal.
Turkish diplomatic sources said the two "national marine parks", established by presidential decree on Aug. 15, extend beyond Turkey's territorial waters. Ankara argues that environmental protection measures can apply to waters outside its territorial sea that it claims fall within its maritime jurisdiction.
Greece disputes that claim, saying the areas overlap maritime zones where it holds rights of its own.
According to Turkish outlet Haber Turk, one of the parks covers the "Fethiye-Kas Marine Protected Area" off Turkey's southwestern coast, between the provinces of Mugla and Antalya, facing the Greek island of Kastellorizo. The second is in the northern Aegean, off Turkey's northwestern coast, extending from the Gallipoli peninsula towards Tekirdag, near the Dardanelles and opposite northern Greece.
The locations are significant because both are linked to Turkey's broader maritime claims in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. Ankara has long argued that no comprehensive maritime boundary delimitation exists between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean, a position Greece rejects, maintaining its own maritime rights in the region.
Greek foreign ministry: parks are illegal, create no fait accompli
The Greek foreign ministry said on Sunday that Turkey's declaration of the two parks has no legal effect and cannot create a fait accompli, after the presidential decrees were published in Turkey's Official Gazette.
Athens said the parks are illegal to the extent that they extend into international waters, arguing that under the Law of the Sea no state may unilaterally establish marine protected areas outside its national jurisdiction. It also said the parks are illegal insofar as they overlap the Greek continental shelf, adding that Turkey's move "produces no legal effect whatsoever" regarding either international waters or Greece's rights over its continental shelf.
The ministry contrasted the Turkish move with Greece's own national marine parks in the Ionian and Aegean seas, which it said were established in full compliance with the Law of the Sea and exclusively within Greek territorial waters.
Athens warned that actions seeking to create a fait accompli or unilaterally affect the status of maritime zones in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean violate international law, do not foster good-neighbourly relations and seriously undermine efforts to maintain mutual understanding between the two countries.
Greece said it would continue to act "with consistency and determination" to protect its sovereign rights, safeguard high-seas freedoms under the Law of the Sea and protect the marine environment in accordance with international law.
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