Greece brands Turkey's new marine parks 'illegal'

Greece on Monday condemned Turkey's creation of two vast marine parks as "illegal", accusing Ankara of encroaching on international waters and Greece's continental shelf.

Turkey earlier announced two protected areas in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, to be designated as national marine parks.

One park will cover waters off the southern Turkish coastal towns of Fethiye and Kas in the Mediterranean, while the second will encompass an area in the northern Aegean near the Dardanelles, according to a decree published in Turkey's official gazette.

The Fethiye-Kas park covers around 21,700 square kilometres (8,400 square miles), while the north Aegean park spans 1,742 square kilometres.

But Athens said the Turkish parks extend beyond Turkey's territorial waters, insisting the move "has no legal effect", according to a foreign ministry statement.

It stressed that Greece's own plans to establish marine parks in the Ionian and Aegean seas had been carried out "in full compliance with the law of the sea" and exclusively within Greek territorial waters.

It said such initiatives by Turkey "do not contribute to strengthening a climate of good neighbourly relations and seriously undermine efforts to maintain relations of mutual understanding between the two countries".

For the left-wing opposition Syriza party, the move was the latest in a long series of "Turkish provocations".

"The first park excludes the entire maritime area around the (Greek) island of Kastellorizo, while the second extends between Samothrace and Lemnos," the party's secretary-general Rena Dourou said.

She accused the government of lacking a national strategy and "continuing to take comfort in the illusion of calm in the Aegean".

Tensions between Greece and neighbouring Turkey, historic rivals but also NATO members, periodically resurface despite efforts to improve ties.

In December 2023, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis signed a declaration on friendship and good-neighbourly relations aimed at easing tensions.