Turkey has declared two national marine parks in the Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean extending into international waters and the Greek continental shelf.
The unilateral move aims to advance Ankara's Blue Homeland maritime doctrine and divide the Aegean Sea into three parts, according to an analysis by retired Supreme Court judge Leandros Rakintzis.
Ankara issued the declarations through two presidential decrees establishing marine protected areas in the Northeastern Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. In response, the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued an official announcement rather than having the Foreign Minister address the matter in person.
The Greek Ministry stated that establishing marine protected areas in international waters outside national jurisdiction is illegal under international law. It declared that the Turkish parks are equally illegal where they overlap the Greek continental shelf, producing no legal effect on international waters or Greek maritime rights.
Greek diplomatic officials added that unilateral national parks outside Turkish jurisdiction cannot create a fait accompli. The ministry affirmed that Greece will act consistently and decisively to safeguard its sovereign rights, maintain high seas freedoms under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and protect the marine environment.
Objections to Government Policy
Rakintzis, a retired Areopagite who previously served as a senior judge on Greece's highest civil and criminal court, strongly criticized the diplomatic response. He noted that the official statement was quickly forgotten after mainstream media ceased covering the topic. He described the ministry's announcement as theoretical, vague, and incomplete, comparing it to text generated by artificial intelligence.
He characterized the announcement as a lex imperfectus, a legal term for a statute that specifies no penalties for non-compliance. Rakintzis noted that the statement frightens no one, particularly Turkey, which he said is accustomed to aggressive behavior without facing punishment.
The former judge argued that the diplomatic response was crafted for domestic political consumption, aimed at supporters who maintain illusions about a calm waters policy. He stated that this government policy of seeking calm waters with Ankara has failed completely.
Rakintzis faulted the ministry for referring to a potential and undelimited continental shelf. He stressed that officials should have explicitly invoked Greece's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf as recognized under UNCLOS, defining their boundaries with exact geographical coordinates.
Maritime Rights and Regional Precedents
By relying on UNCLOS when Turkey rejects island continental shelf rights, Rakintzis warned that future maritime delimitation will not follow international convention. Instead, he said negotiations would occur ex aequo et bono, resulting in an unfair division where Turkey retains its faits accomplis while splitting the remaining Aegean.
He compared official announcements praising diplomatic handling to historic wartime communiqués, referencing German reports during military retreats that claimed troops had successfully placed themselves far from the enemy.
Rakintzis cited past instances where he said Greek hesitation emboldened Ankara, including the 1996 Imia crisis over two uninhabited Aegean islets and recent friction during the laying of a subsea electrical cable off the island of Kasos.
The Imia dispute previously brought Greece and Turkey to the brink of armed conflict in the southeastern Aegean. More recently, maritime surveys for underwater power infrastructure near Kasos, an island in the Dodecanese, triggered naval standoffs between Greek and Turkish vessels.
He also highlighted current reports regarding the potential transfer of American-made Patriot air defense missile batteries from the island of Karpathos to Crete. Rakintzis characterized inaction and delayed responses to Turkish provocations as political omissions by the Foreign Minister in defending national territory.
Calls for Unilateral EEZ Declaration
A longstanding failure of successive Greek governments, Rakintzis argued, is the decision not to unilaterally declare an Exclusive Economic Zone and continental shelf in the Aegean Sea. UNCLOS grants islands full continental shelf rights, and he stated that Greece should have submitted specific coordinates to the United Nations.
He urged the current administration to issue a unilateral declaration immediately, covering the maritime area encompassed by Turkey's new marine parks where it overlaps the Greek continental shelf.
Because the Turkish declarations affect European Union maritime space, Rakintzis called on Athens to formally invite the EU to intervene. Greece is an EU member state, making its maritime borders part of the bloc's outer boundary.
He emphasized that declaring an EEZ is an independent sovereign act separate from bilateral EEZ delimitation with neighboring states. Ankara unilaterally defined the limits of its Blue Homeland doctrine through domestic legislation, seeking to turn sea areas into grey zones.
Rakintzis defined a fait accompli as an irreversible situation established before an opponent can react. History demonstrates that such facts on the ground are rarely overturned except by military force, citing Turkey's illegal occupation of northern Cyprus since 1974.
Enforcement and Security Risks
Addressing the Foreign Ministry's claim that Turkey cannot create faits accomplis, Rakintzis called the assertion an empty statement that masks official hesitation. He noted that Greece knew in advance of Turkey's park preparations but lacked the political will to establish its own marine park in the area.
The retired judge noted that the ministry failed to explain how Turkey's established positions will be overturned. Under international law, environmental marine parks protect biodiversity, rare species, and ecosystems from overfishing and pollution within a nation's territorial waters, enforced by domestic authorities.
Rakintzis explained that extending marine parks into high seas or another state's EEZ cannot be achieved without demonstrations of force and international alliances. He warned that Turkey will enforce sovereign rights within the designated park boundaries.
Ankara is expected to ban Greek fishing vessels from the park zones and restrict hydrocarbon exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean. Furthermore, Rakintzis warned that any legal disputes within the park areas will be tried in Turkish courts under Turkish law, warning that Greece is now in trouble.
Both countries are entering election cycles, with Turkey scheduled to hold elections in autumn 2026. Rakintzis warned that nationalist statements, particularly from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will increase bilateral tensions and heighten the risk of maritime incidents, concluding with the warning that one evil leads to ten thousand more.
