TR Marine Mavi Vatan (Blue Homeland)

Scott Summers said:

ExconMobil starts drilling in Block 5 after South Cypriotic Navtex.

EXXON MOBIL starts drilling for natural gas in the Cypriot EEZ - ProtoThema English

The Republic of Cyprus today issued NAVTEX for the commencement of drilling in Block 5

en.protothema.gr

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nick.f76 said:

The Aegean dispute and the Turkish strategic doctrine of the “Mavi Vatan” - Πτήση

By Georgios Kalafikis, Ph.D. Greece should always and suitably repel Turkey’s expansionist claims (in whatever form or frequency) against Greek land, sea, and airspace before the eyes and minds of the international community, for two reasons: first, the current Greco-Turkish confrontation and...

flight.com.gr

1) “All Greek islands of the Eastern Aegean constitute an extension of the Anatolian Plate; hence, they settle on a potential Turkish continental shelf and they are not entitled to any of their own”.
First, the concepts of the “continental shelf” and the “tectonic plates” cannot be adjoined in the inaccurate manner of the Turkish side, nor can they be connected according to the aspirations of the Turkish establishment! According to Geology, the “Anatolian tectonic plate” does not protrude into the Aegean Sea; on the contrary, the “Aegean or Hellenic tectonic plate” includes the Turkish coastline of the Aegean and extends further into western Anatolia (Asia Minor).
Secondly, according to the “United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea” (UNCLOS), every juridical island is entitled to a continental shelf and an EEZ in equal principle with any other corresponding mainland, besides the legal territorial sea of up to 12 nautical miles. The UNCLOS treaty and the relevant decisions of international tribunals cannot be invoked a la carte by a non-contracting state, such as Turkey, which not only hasn’t signed it yet but still rejects it as an instrument for interpreting the Law of the Seas.

Until very recently, Greece had been the only (!) country in the world to possess a ubiquitous territorial sea of just 6 nautical miles strictly and only measured by the shorelines and not by applying “straight baselines” after designating its many bays and gulfs as “internal waters” or “historic bays” (at last, Greece used those methods for the enlargement of the Greek territorial waters in the Ionian Sea. It is worth mentioning that “straight baselines” increase the outline of the coastlines and also expand the starting basis for the calculation of the territorial waters, thus enlarging the territorial sea). Moreover, Greece is, unfortunately, the only (!) country worldwide to bear an official and perpetual threat of a “casus belli” formally declared by Turkey – an otherwise NATO “ally” – in case Greece legally extends its Aegean territorial waters from 6 to 12 nautical miles, a right provided by international conventions without impeding the maritime traffic and the global navigation in any way.

The possibility of a unilateral but legal extension of the Greek territorial waters to 12 miles in the Aegean through “straight baselines” as well as by designating most Greek gulfs as “internal waters” or “historic bays” would automatically put an end to the Aegean Question. Then, the Greek territorial waters/territorial sea would cover approximately ¾ (75%) of the total area of the Aegean basin; hence, only a few parts of the Aegean would remain in a “High seas” status and potentially dividable between Greece and Turkey. That’s the key reason for the existence of the illegitimate Turkish casus belli against Greece.
In reality, a friendly and cooperative Turkey has nothing to fear because Greece has neither the intention nor the capacity to block Turkey’s exit to the High Seas by exercising a blockade in the semi-enclosed Aegean Sea, in turn, a part of the enclosed Mediterranean Sea. Being a country that habitually abides by International Law and a maritime nation that considers the “Freedom of the Seas” as a vital “national interest”, Greece has already explicitly declared by signing the UNCLOS that (quote) it “has the responsibility to designate the route or routes” for “the international navigation” through its “numerous spread-out islands” that often “form a great number of alternative straits” to apply “in practice” all relevant articles of the UNCLOS. Indeed, that’s what Greece is doing and permitting anyway (cf. the MarineTraffic screenshot). Therefore, Turkey’s retrospective fears only reflect its malicious aims against Greece, as we shall demonstrate next.


4) Finally, the very theory and policy of the so-called Turkish “Azure Homeland” (Mavi Vatan) is offensive through a simple juxtaposition to the map. Such a hypothetical, intolerable to Greece and Cyprus, Turkish EEZ would “engulf” hundreds of Greek islands and almost the entire Cypriot EEZ! The possibility of the Aegean Greek islands and Cyprus merely “floating” upon a “Turkish” sea is unrealistic beyond any reasonable doubt. A possible “encapsulation” of several hundred densely packed foreign islands into a foreign EEZ is a fallacy by definition in stark contrast to any principle or provision of International Law. Such likelihood becomes an illusion because in International Law no regulation exists that allows for a foreign opposite or adjacent coastline to extend its EEZ over and beyond a whole foreign chain of islands. That would be to the detriment of all the intermediate foreign islands. Practically, whole clusters and groups of Greek islands would be separated and cut off from the rest of the Greek national territory, even though they are geographically inseparable from each other and the Greek mainland.

That’s why the “sea blockade” that allegedly Turkey is afraid of being imposed by Greece is what Turkey aspires to impose on Greece instead! Exactly how? By precisely aspiring to close off all the Greek islands up to the middle of the Aegean and even Cyprus within an enormous “Turkish territorial sea, continental shelf and EEZ”, Turkey’s “Azure Homeland”. Therefore, Greece may condemn the Turkish strategic plans for expansion even by associating the “Mavi Vatan” with Italy’s “Mare Nostrum” and Germany’s “Lebensraum”!
To sum up, the implicit and explicit goal of 21st-century revisionist Turkey is to absorb Greek seas, land, islands, and airspace. That is the essence of the contemporary Greco-Turkish utterly problematic and quasi-hostile relations. Another graphic – though strangely neglected – detail aptly reveals that the Greek Aegean islands do not even enjoy the right to the minimum legal territorial sea of 6 nautical miles in all the Turkish “Mavi Vatan” maps! So, according to the Turkish fallacious and expansionist intentions, they already seem to belong to Turkey proper!

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Libyan government rejects Greek objections to deal with Türkiye​

BENGHAZI​

Libyan government rejects Greek objections to deal with Türkiye - World News

Libya’s eastern-based government has firmly rejected recent Greek objections to the 2019 maritime boundary agreement signed between Türkiye and the Tripoli-based Libyan government, asserting that the deal remains legitimate under international law.

www.hurriyetdailynews.com