Erdogan: A new field of tension in Greek-Turkish relations is opening due to Ankara's decision to proceed with the declaration of two Turkish "national marine parks" in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, effectively reinstating the entire package of Turkish claims regarding maritime zones, islands, and the continental shelf.
Report: Giannis Papanikolaou
Athens views the move as a political and geostrategic instrumentalization of environmental protection. The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs clarified on August 16 that, insofar as the Turkish parks occupy international waters, their unilateral establishment is illegal, and the same applies where the designs extend into the Greek continental shelf. Athens emphasizes that Ankara's decisions do not produce legal effects against Greek rights.
What Turkey is actually attempting
Behind the environmental character of the new parks, a clearly broader ambition can be discerned.
Turkey is attempting to reaffirm its position that Greek islands cannot generate full maritime rights and that delimitation in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean should be conducted based on its own reading of geography.
Ankara had already reacted to Greek marine parks for 2024 and 2025, even reinstating claims regarding islets whose sovereignty, according to the Turkish position, has not been ceded to Greece through international treaties.
This is precisely why the new move takes on particular significance.
It is not just about the environment. It constitutes another way of mapping Turkish claims onto the map.
Kastellorizo is once again at the center
Athens is particularly concerned about the area between Rhodes and Kastellorizo.
This specific geographical arc lies at the heart of the dispute over the Eastern Mediterranean, as Turkey has long attempted to drastically limit the influence of Kastellorizo on maritime zones.
In practice, such a design would facilitate the Turkish strategy of connecting the Turkish coasts with the maritime claims put forward through the Turkey-Libya memorandum.
What Greek, French, and German analysts say at VIMA ORTHODOXIAS
Geostrategic analysts from Greece, France, and Germany, with whom vimaorthodoxias.gr spoke, estimate that Erdogan's move does not create new sovereign rights for Turkey on its own, but could prove extremely significant as a tool for political pressure.
As they note, Ankara seeks to create a constantly growing archive of maps, legislative acts, and administrative decisions that reflect Turkish positions, so that they appear in the future as permanent state policy.
Greek analysts point out that the greatest danger is the gradual "normalization" of Turkish claims in international discussion.
French interlocutors place particular emphasis on the need for the European Union to treat any challenge to a member state's rights as a European, rather than exclusively bilateral, issue.
From Germany, analysts note that the possibility of a military crisis is not the primary immediate scenario, but they warn of an accumulation of "small conflicts" surrounding research, cables, NAVTEX, and environmental zones.
The negatives for Greece
The first negative element is that it opens yet another front of dispute in the Aegean.
Turkey adds the environmental field to the already existing issues of the continental shelf, EEZ, territorial waters, airspace, and demilitarization.
Second, the risk of incidents increases when Greece and Turkey attempt to implement different designs in the same maritime area.
Third, potential difficulties are created for infrastructure projects such as the Greece–Cyprus electricity interconnection, should Ankara attempt to link its environmental decisions to NAVTEX or interference in research activities.
Fourth, the Rhodes–Kastellorizo area acquires even greater strategic tension.
The positives for Athens
However, there is another side.
Greece possesses a strong advantage at the level of international law, as, according to the official Greek position, unilateral decisions in international waters or in the area of the Greek continental shelf cannot create Turkish jurisdiction.
At the same time, Ankara's new move allows Athens to further highlight to the EU and allies that the Greek-Turkish dispute is no longer limited to a technical discussion regarding the continental shelf.
It is also considered positive that Greek marine parks have already been integrated into a clear environmental plan, while Turkey had officially stated since 2025 that it does not recognize their legal consequences for its own claims.
Consequently, Athens can seek greater European protection for its designs.
The next big test: the Greece–Cyprus cable
The truly difficult test may come with the new maritime surveys for the electricity interconnection between Greece and Cyprus.
If Greek NAVTEX are issued and Turkey reacts operationally, then the marine parks may cease to be a war of maps and announcements and transform into part of a real crisis on the ground.
For this reason, the coming months are considered critical.
From "calm waters" to a new cycle of dispute
The biggest political problem is that this specific move comes to exacerbate the climate of the so-called "calm waters."
Greek diplomacy itself warned that Turkish decisions do not contribute to good neighborliness or to efforts to maintain mutual understanding.
For Greece, therefore, the threat does not lie in a map that suddenly changes borders.
It lies in Ankara's attempt to build a comprehensive web of claims, from the Northern Aegean to Kastellorizo and the Eastern Mediterranean.
Athens' response will be judged on whether it combines composure, international legal documentation, European alliances, and decisiveness in exercising its rights.
More information regarding the international context and the positions of the other side is also published by the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which has repeatedly publicly recorded its objections to Greek maritime designs.
The critical conclusion of the analysts is that Erdogan's move does not change Greek sovereign rights today, but attempts to gradually change the framework within which they will be challenged tomorrow.