Turkey: Why it fears the expansion of territorial waters in Crete

Ankara may be indulging in saber rattling and bellicose rhetoric regarding the possible extension to 12 miles of Greek territorial waters south and west of Crete, but the concern of the Turkish leadership is intense.

And this is because he considers that in the event that Athens exercises its sovereign right to extend its territorial waters to Crete, then the “passage” to the Aegean will be closed for Turkey.

Turkey does not want the gray zones it has drawn to be “erased”.

Starting from the Turkish-Libyan memorandum of 2019 on the delimitation of maritime zones and reaching the new Turkish-Libyan memorandum of 2022 on the exploitation of hydrocarbons, Turkey tried to carve out gray zones in the eastern Mediterranean, which it does not want to erase under any circumstances.

As Metehan Demir, political analyst of the Haberturk television network, commented, “Greece and Crete are attempting something different. Instead of extending its territorial waters to 12 miles in the Aegean. He is going to do a gradual expansion of territorial waters to 12 miles in Crete and to do this later in the Aegean as well.

They already did something similar in the Ionian Sea and they had already sent the message that they will expand territorial waters in Crete, that is, from the other side of the mainland with the aim of sending a message to Turkey,” he said, and continued:

“Now there was the intervention of Turkey as in the event that Greece expands its territorial waters in the Aegean from 6 miles to 12 miles the share it will hold in the Aegean will increase to 70% from the 35% it is today.”

Cavusoglu explained that Turkey will not allow the extension of Greek territorial waters, in Crete, even by one mile.

“Not 12 miles, not one,” said the Turkish foreign minister. Recalling the casus belli he added: “The decision was taken by our National Assembly in 1995 and the issue is clear and the decision remains in force.”

It is recalled that the Turkish National Assembly, on June 8, 1995, declared a casus belli (cause of war) for the possible extension of Greek territorial waters to 12 miles.