Greece’s embassy in Ankara on Thursday formally protested Turkey’s declaration of two marine parks, saying their boundaries have no legal effect where they extend beyond Turkish jurisdiction and across areas Athens considers part of the Greek continental shelf.
The protest also challenged Ankara’s objections to three Greek plans governing where tourism, renewable energy, industrial and logistics projects may be developed.
Turkey handed Greek diplomats diplomatic notes restating its public positions when the protest was delivered, the Greek newspaper Kathimerini reported Friday.
International treaties have settled sovereignty in the Aegean, and Greece will raise what it considers unlawful Turkish actions with European and international partners, Greek diplomatic sources said.
The decrees, signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on August 15 and published in Turkey’s Official Gazette the next day, established the Fethiye-Kaş Marine National Park in the eastern Mediterranean and the North Aegean Marine National Park.
The Fethiye-Kaş park covers 21,706.03 square kilometers off Turkey’s Muğla and Antalya provinces and reaches waters around Kastellorizo, a Greek island that Turkey calls Meis.
The North Aegean park covers 1,742.14 square kilometers off Turkey’s Çanakkale and Tekirdağ provinces and extends toward waters between the Greek islands of Samothrace and Lemnos.
No country may unilaterally declare marine protected areas on the high seas or another country’s continental shelf under the law of the sea, the Greek Foreign Ministry said after the decrees were published.
The two NATO members have no agreed boundary for their continental shelves or exclusive economic zones across much of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean, despite a December 2023 friendship declaration intended to ease tensions.
Islands such as Kastellorizo are entitled to territorial waters, a continental shelf and an exclusive economic zone under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Greece argues.
Turkey has not joined the convention and argues that boundaries should be set through agreements based on equity and geography because Greece’s approach would confine the Turkish mainland to a narrow maritime area.
The Turkish decrees followed Greece’s creation of marine parks in the Ionian Sea and southern Aegean in July 2025, which Athens says lie entirely in Greek territorial waters.
Ankara opposed the Greek parks at the time, saying environmental programs should not be used to advance sovereignty claims over disputed islands, islets and rocks.
At a meeting of European Union foreign ministers in Ireland on Wednesday, Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis cited what Athens calls an increase in Turkish airspace violations, including incidents involving armed F-16s and a drone near Alexandroupoli airport, Kathimerini reported.
He also warned that a bill based on Ankara’s “Blue Homeland” doctrine, a policy asserting broad Turkish maritime rights in surrounding seas, would signal further escalation if introduced in Turkey’s parliament, according to the report
