Greek-Turkish: Meeting on the MOUs today in the shadow of the “crisis” of the marine parks – Economic Post

A meeting of the delegations of Greece and Turkey on Confidence Building Measures (CBM) will take place today, Monday, April 22, in Athens, at the Ministry of National Defense, in the shadow of Ankara’s strong reaction on the issue of marine parks, a reaction that Athens characterizes as “completely unjustified”.

At the MOU meeting, the two delegations will be led by Ambassador Theocharis Lalakos and Deputy Foreign Minister Burak Aktsapar, respectively. Also, senior and senior officers of the Armed Forces of the two countries will participate. It is recalled that the previous meeting on Confidence Building Measures took place on November 13, 2023 in Ankara.

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The MOUs together with the positive agenda are crucial steps on the way to the Greek-Turkish dialogue, the top stop of which will be the visit of Kyriakos Mitsotakis to Turkey and the meeting with Recep Tayyip Erdogan on May 13.

Fine balances

This road, however, is not paved with rose petals. On the contrary: Ankara is bringing back the theory of “gray zones” in the Aegean after announcing the creation of a marine park in the Cyclades.

“The parks prove that Turkey considers that it should be asked about what concerns the Aegean,” noted the deputy professor of International Politics, Sotiris Serbos, speaking to MEGA.

Athens knows that, despite the calm climate, Turkey has not retreated from its permanent claims that affect Greek sovereign rights, nor has it abandoned its positions on disputes that conflict with the also permanent Greek positions.

That is why the Ministry of National Defense of Turkey, through its representative, Rear Admiral Zeki Akturk, returned to the provocative positions, criticizing Athens for its plans regarding marine parks in the Aegean and announced that the Turkish government “has declared that unilateral de facto situations on the “islands, islets and rocks whose sovereignty has not been transferred by treaty” (s.s. the Turkish acronym EGAYDAAK is used) will not be accepted and will have no legal consequences.” He also noted that “as a ministry, we are vigilant to protect our rights, interests and interests in the Aegean and prevent Greece’s unilateral efforts to create a regime unilaterally”.

Moreover, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of its neighbor stated that Ankara will not accept “accomplishments that Greece can create in geographical formations, the status of which is disputed”.

In this way, Ankara proclaims that it disputes the legal right of our country to extend its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles.

It doesn’t appear…

Athens, however, and through the mouth of the prime minister, emphasizes that the creation of the marine parks has a purely environmental nature and will proceed.

Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that he was “impressed by this completely unjustified reaction of Turkey to an initiative which has an environmental nature”, although he then noted that despite the “undeniable” and “measurable” improvement in Greek-Turkish relations, the “work case” does not arise that Turkey’s basic positions regarding the critical issue of the delimitation of maritime zones in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean have changed”.

“Greece exercises sovereignty and its sovereign rights based on international law and the law of the sea, and I am impressed by Turkey’s completely unjustified reaction to a move with an environmental content. We will proceed with the creation of the parks as we committed at the recent conference in Athens.

I do not consider that the improvement of Greek-Turkish relations, which is indisputable and measurable, leads to the working hypothesis that Turkey’s positions on the EEZ have changed and remain deeply problematic for our country, but this does not prevent us from building a positive agenda. said Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Source: in.gr