Ayhan Ozer
Lately, the Aegean Sea is a scene of some unfriendly activities engaged by Greece. Turkey and Greece are two neighbors across the Aegean. Their friendship was founded in 1920s by two statesmen, P.M. Venizelos and President Ataturk. Notwithstanding this solid foundation, Greece constantly creates artificial problems in the Aegean Sea. Lately, she slyly usurped 18 small islands, and quickly inhabited them.
Presently Greece is setting the stage for a dangerous fait- accompli in the Aegean Sea. She intends to extend the limits of her territorial waters from 6 miles to 12 miles. This unilateral move is against the Agreements and a violation of the international law. The President of Greece issued a Decree to that effect. Then, the Greek Foreign Minister Alexis Cipras announced that he will submit this proposal to the Parliament to make it a law. Strangely, the Greece daily TO VIMA announced that the Turkish President R.T. Erdogan had supposedly agreed to this devious plan! If this is true, Turkey will lose not only territories but enormous prestige as well around the world.
While Greece works hard politically and diplomatically on this issue the Turkish Foreign Ministry lacks any state policy, and naively tries to sooth the public with wishy washy statements. This gives an eerie credibility to TO VIMA’s claim.
In the past, the Territorial Waters issue came forward many times, and in each instance in view of the strong opposition from Turkey it died out. The Aegean Sea is a confined and cluttered area, and any reckless attempt by Greece will trample the basic rights of Turkey, like navigation, fishing, shipping and tourism.
Territorial waters, by definition, is a band of coastal waters adjacent to the shore over which the coastal state possesses sovereignity. However, the foreign merchant ships have a right of peaceful passages. However, such passages do not imply any right to fish, or to draw benefit from the submarine resources. All ships that are granted free passage must comply with the local regulations and respect the navigation and pilotage requirements of the sovereign country.
The modern concept of territorial waters was established in 1702 by a Dutch jurist, Cornelius Van Byukershock. In his proposal he defined the territory of a state as extending to the sea as far as the range of a canon-shot from its shore. In 1795, it was officially accepted that three miles was the actual range of coastal batteries, and the 3-mile limit became rule. In case there is a bay, a straight line drawn across the bay is taken as a reference line. The seabed and its subsoil, as well as the air space above them come under the exclusive jurisdiction of the sovereign country.
In the present situation, by virtue of the twelve Dodecanese islands, which are only a few miles from the Turkish mainland, and the Crete, Greece possesses 43.5 percent of the Aegean Sea as opposed a meager 7.5 percent of Turkish share. The remaining 49 percent is high seas. If Greece extend the limits of territorial waters to 12 miles, she would have appropriated about 71.5 percent of the Aegean Sea, while Turkey’s share would increase only to 8.8 percent; in such an eventuality, the Aegean high seas would shrink to a mere 19.7 percent. This means Greece will virtually dominate the Aegean Sea, the air space above it and the continental shelf. This is a serious threat to Turkey’s security interests as well as her commercial interests. It will impede the free passage and fishing rights of Turkey in the area, restrict the ability to conduct military exercises in high seas and in the international airspace, and put the entire Aegean continental shelf under Greek control, seriously impairing the rights of Turkey for any search in the seabed.
Either through friendly persuasion or diplomatic channels the Turkish government must make clear to Greece that this reckless and hostile behavior will not be tolerated, and should be abandoned. However undesirable, if all fail the last resort may be force.
At this time, Turkey should soberly re-evaluate her relations with Greece. For too long, in a good–neighborly spirit, and to maintain harmony in the region Turkey has dismissed several belligerent moves by Greece. Attempting to appropriate the island of Cyprus and with this new Eagean adventure Greece follows an insidious policy to corner Turkey in the Mediterranean and in the Aegean Sea. Also, by violating the international Treaties and Conventions Greece unwisely brings hostility and tension to the area, and provokes Turkey. Also Greece, disrespecting the Lausanne Treaty of 1924, militarizes the islands in the Eagean Sea, which is a gross violation.The Turkish government must bring to task the Greek government for these reckless violation acts.
All those provocations on the part of Greece may bring these two neigbors on the collision course, and only wise counsel can prevent a crisis. Turkey must impress upon Greece that she will not tolerate her antics. Can Turkey afford living constantly in a chain of crisis caused by Greece, or would she prefer to settle the account once and for all?
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