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| Map of the Aegean, with approximate extent of territorial waters if extended to 12 nm. To be used as illustration in en:Aegean dispute. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Turkey submitted a note verbale to the United Nations in which Ankara disputes the rights of some Greek islands to have a continental shelf and Exclusive Economic Zone in violation of what it says is Article 121 of the Convention on the Law of the Sea. Essentially Turkey is carving its own EEZ in the Aegean right into Greek territorial waters, and warns with war if Athens dares to claim its rights in the Aegean.
The move is an answer to the note verbale submitted by Greece to the UN (on February 201, 2013. Commenting on the move, Greece's Foreign Ministry said late on Tuesday that the Greek government will safeguard all of the country's sovereign rights as these derive from international law.
Turkey's insistence to "co-manage" the Aegean, is well known, but it also wants to capitalize on Greece's wealth!
A report on defencenet said on Wednesday morning that following the note verbale, Turkey is even planning to pull out its naval fleet in the Aegean and supposedly hold large-scale naval exercises in order to defend its positions! At the same time it is planning to proceed with seismic surveys in the area of Kastelorizo!
Military, and diplomatic sources, are concerned about Ankara's moves and do not exclude a heated incident in the Aegean following Tuesday's developments.
Territorial waters, or a territorial sea, as defined by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, is a belt of coastal waters extending at most 12 nautical miles (22 km; 14 mi) from the baseline (usually the mean low-water mark) of a coastal state. The territorial sea is regarded as the sovereign territory of the state, although foreign ships (both military and civilian) are allowed innocent passage through it; this sovereignty also extends to the airspace over and seabed below. Wikipedia
In the Aegean the territorial waters claimed by both sides are still at 6 miles. The possibility of an extension to 12 miles has fuelled Turkish concerns over a possible disproportionate increase in Greek-controlled space.
Turkey has refused to become a member of the convention and does not consider itself bound by it. Turkey considers the convention as res inter alios acta, i.e. a treaty that can only be binding to the signing parties but not to others.
Greece, which is a party to the convention, has stated that it reserves the right to apply this rule and extend its waters to 12 miles at some point in the future, although it has never actually attempted to do so. It holds that the 12 mile rule is not only treaty law but also customary law, as per the wide consensus established among the international community.
Against this, Turkey argues that the special geographical properties of the Aegean Sea make a strict application of the 12 mile rule in this case illicit in the interest of equity.
Ironically, Turkey has itself applied the customary 12 mile limit to its coasts outside the Aegean (in the Black Sea).
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