Ankara is ready to initiate a discussion of the issue of the sovereignty of the islands in the Aegean Sea, if Greece does not stop violating the status of their demilitarization, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said.
“There can be ups and downs in international relations, tensions and friendships, these are natural things.
Unfortunately, the situation in Greece is deplorable, they are very good at explaining how right they are.
May Greece respond clearly to our letters.
Let him declare that he does not violate the status of the demilitarization of the islands.
If they do not stop the violations, we will start a debate about the sovereignty of the islands, ”TASS quotes Cavusoglu as saying.
At the end of May, the Permanent Representative of Greece to the UN, Maria Theophili, handed over to the Secretary General of the organization a letter containing a response to Turkish concerns, which were also transmitted in writing by the Permanent Representative of Ankara back in September 2021.
In its response, the Greek side completely rejected all the claims of Turkey as legally, historically and factually unfounded.
In particular, Athens rejected Ankara's entire argument about the relationship of Greek sovereignty over the islands in the Aegean Sea with obligations to demilitarize them.
Mevlut Cavusoglu
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After that, on May 31, Cavusoglu accused Greece of violating the status of the islands and stated that if they were not demilitarized, the question of their ownership would arise.
In turn, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on June 1 that Ankara would no longer negotiate with Athens.
Aegean conflict
Relations between Greece and Turkey have seriously aggravated in recent years due to territorial disputes over the islands and shelf of the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Most of the islands of the Aegean archipelago are part of Greece, which wants to expand the territorial waters adjacent to them.
This is opposed by Turkey, which has sovereignty over two islands in the northern part of the sea.
At the same time, Turkey did not sign the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, according to which countries can expand their territorial waters to a distance of up to 12 nautical miles.
In 1995, the Turkish side stated that if Athens took such a step in the Aegean Sea, Ankara would consider this a violation of its sovereignty and a formal reason for declaring war.
The issue was raised again in August 2020, when Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay threatened Greece with war if he expanded his territorial waters in the Aegean.
In turn, Greece does not recognize the memorandum of understanding on the delimitation of maritime zones between Turkey and Libya, which was concluded in 2019.
This memorandum, according to Athens, actually deprives the Greek islands, located between the Turkish and Libyan territories, of the rights to the continental shelf rich in gas deposits and the establishment of an exclusive economic zone.
After that, Greece concluded an agreement on territorial waters with Italy and Egypt, which Ankara does not recognize.
After that, the Turkish side regularly carried out geological work in the disputed areas of the shelf, while research vessels accompanied warships.
Greece was supported by Egypt and Israel, which conducted joint exercises with the Greek Navy, as well as France, which sent its ships to the shelf.
Turkish warship
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In January of this year, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said that opposite the islands, the demilitarization of which Turkey demands, the largest landing fleet and landing force in the Mediterranean was deployed.
He stressed that Greece offers the Turkish side to abandon the threat of war and comply with the norms of international law.
Greek objections
While Turkey is stepping up its rhetoric on the issue of territorial waters and the status of islands in the Aegean, Greece has consistently voiced opposition to Ankara's actions.
“We will do everything possible to protect our sovereign rights in full.
We are dangerously close to the limit of our patience and restraint,” Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos said on June 6 at a security conference in Bratislava.
He criticized Turkey's behavior and recalled that both countries are members of NATO.
“It is strange that our ally is threatening us with war if we use our legal right, which meets international standards, and expand our territorial waters further than six miles.
Threats of war from one ally to another?
I don’t need such allies, ”the head of the defense department emphasized.
He added that Athens does not need allies who make regular incursions into the airspace of Greece and carry out night overflights of its settlements.
“Besides, it is strange when our ally calls for the demilitarization of our islands, arguing with what?
The fact that in case of refusal to demilitarize them, anyone can capture them?
Who?
Will someone else take them from us?"
says Panagiotopoulos.
He called this situation unacceptable and absurd.
Greek Navy ship
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In turn, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis called on Ankara to abandon its militant rhetoric and prevent real tensions between the two countries from growing.
Conflict of interests
According to the director of the Center for the Study of the Countries of the Middle East and Central Asia, Semyon Bagdasarov, the main motivator of Turkey in the current aggravation is the gas fields discovered in the region in 2015.
“In practical terms, Cavusoglu's statement means the readiness for the possibility of capturing the Aegean Islands, where Turkey will come, since there are large gas deposits around these islands.
Such a conflict can lead to military clashes, short-term and small-scale.
There is nothing new in this - Turkey and Greece have long been at enmity for historical reasons, despite the fact that they are members of NATO, ”the RT interlocutor explained.
Karine Gevorgyan, an orientalist political scientist and editor of the Vostok magazine, believes that Turkey decided to raise the stakes after it successfully froze the entry of Sweden and Finland into the alliance.
“It is worth paying attention to the fact that Turkey has chosen a very interesting time for this.
After all, it is precisely because of Ankara's position that the admission of Sweden and Finland to the North Atlantic Alliance at the summit in June is actually cancelled.
After this victory, Turkish diplomacy immediately upped the ante.
In addition, by openly feuding with Greece, Erdogan sends a signal to Washington in one way or another, ”the political scientist explained.
According to her, Turkish political circles consider the strengthening of military cooperation between Greece and the United States as a threat to Ankara's security.
Washington's hasty desire to admit two new countries to NATO has opened up an opportunity for Turkey to strengthen its position in the alliance and make Western countries lose face, the expert added.
“Turkey, represented by Erdogan and his entourage, experiences some pleasure from this,” the RT interlocutor emphasized.
This situation will certainly have a negative impact on the stability of the alliance as a military-political bloc, Gevorgyan believes.
“The countries of the Anglosphere themselves are creating new defense alliances, such as AUKUS, thereby frankly showing the rest of NATO members that their number is extreme.
In fact, NATO by and large ceases to be the organization that it was, say, in the period from the 1950s to the 1980s, ”the expert noted.
It was this situation that Turkey took advantage of, deciding to recall its national interests.
“It should be taken into account that the escalation of the conflict between Turkey and Greece is somehow linked to the context of these processes in NATO, which allowed Turkey to increase its position in the alliance and in the West in a completely unexpected way.
Maybe, without the history associated with Sweden and Finland, the Turks would not have gone to such an escalation, ”concluded the analyst.