New Greek gov’t launches salvo at Turkey over Aegean disputes
July 9 2012 at 4:19 AM

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Greeces new government has said Athens should remain committed to maintaining cooperation with Turkey but urged Ankara to drop its threat of war in long-running Aegean disputes between the two neighbors, saying it is an obstacle for the improvement of ties.

Greek Foreign Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos, in a policy speech in parliament on Saturday, also claimed that Turkey is bound by terms of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which regulates how countries should use oceans and seas and the resources they contain -- even though Ankara refuses to sign it.

Turkey refuses to sign the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea out of concerns about its implications for its territorial disputes with Greece in the Aegean. The convention, which was concluded in 1982 and came into force in 1994, recognizes nations rights to extend their territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) and their exclusive economic zone up to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) from the baseline. The implementation of these norms is tricky in the Aegean due to special geographical properties of the area.

Ankara strongly rejects any Greek attempts to extend its territorial waters from the current six nautical miles to 12. Tensions peaked in the 1990s when Greece ratified the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. As a measure to counter any Greek declaration that its territorial waters extend up to 12 nautical miles, the Turkish Parliament officially declared that any Greek unilateral attempt will be considered a casus belli, a reason to declare war.

Turkey and Greece are also at odds over the delimitation of the exclusive economic zones due to a dispute over to what extent the Greek islands off the Turkish coast should be taken into consideration while determining the borders of the Turkish and Greek exclusive economic zones.

Turkey argues that distances should be measured from the continental mainland, while Greece claims that all islands must be taken into account on an equal basis.

Avramopoulos said in his speech that countries that are not parties to the UN convention are also obliged to follow its norms and announced that Athens will also raise the issue within the EU, which Turkey aspires to join.

Turkey says it is not bound by the UN convention since it has never signed it, while Greece defends the right to extend territorial waters to 12 nautical miles is not only treaty law but also customary law.

Turkish and Greek diplomats have been holding closed-door talks for years to resolve the issue but no progress has been reported so far. Avramopoulos said Turkey should realize that it cannot keep the threat of war alive while talks meant to sort out the disputes are under way and while the two countries keep having high-level cooperation meetings.

He said he has already let his Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Davutolu, know of his governments expectation when the two met on the sidelines of a Black Sea regional meeting last month.

Whether Avramopoulos statements can revive tensions between the two neighbors remains a question. Commenting on the Greek foreign ministers remarks, a Turkish official said they are mere repetition of Greeces well-known stance.

On other issues of dispute, Avramopoulos said his government will continue to press Turkey to re-open Halki Greek Orthodox seminary, in an island off stanbul, and to improve the rights and status of the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in stanbul. He said the status of the Patriarchate is not a matter of reciprocity that should be handled as part of a package that commits Greece to improve the countrys Muslim Turkish minority.

Avramopoulos also said the Greek Foreign Ministry was working on a new foreign policy doctrine that will dispense with a belief that every development in the world should be seen as a threat to Greeces security, something, he said, that pushes Greece into isolation.

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