Greece Braces for Turkey’s “Blue Homeland” Law

 Credit: Wikimedia Commons / Krallis / CC BY SA 3

Greece is sounding the alarm implicit Turkey’s program to present the “Blue Homeland” doctrine and “gray zone” claims into its nationalist law. Experts presumption this arsenic an assertive enlargement of Ankara’s revisionist goals, designed to fulfill home hardliners.

The world of this “strategy of tension” was felt connected the h2o past week erstwhile a Turkish rocket vessel harassed a cable-laying vessel betwixt Astypalaia and Kos, proving that Ankara is acceptable to backmost its legislative claims with naval muscle.

Greek fears implicit Turkey’s “Blue Homeland” doctrine

Turkey is preparing authorities to formally specify its maritime jurisdiction areas, with the draught measure reportedly authorizing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to state “bodies of h2o with peculiar status.”

The authorities would enactment Turkey’s “Blue Homeland” doctrine successful the Black Sea, Eastern Mediterranean and astir occupied Cyprus, arsenic good arsenic areas linked to Ankara’s maritime statement with Libya.

The doctrine was developed by erstwhile Turkish naval officers and refers to Turkey’s claims implicit maritime jurisdiction zones, continental support rights and exclusive economical interests successful surrounding seas. It has agelong been regarded arsenic a cardinal pillar of the nation’s information strategy and geopolitical outlook, and astatine the halfway of disputes with Greece implicit the Aegean and eastbound Mediterranean.

The draught authorities specifies that the ineligible presumption of islands, islets, and stone formations—collectively referred to arsenic “gray zones” that periodically spark tensions betwixt Turkey and Greece, peculiarly successful the Aegean—is presently nether review. The designation and presumption of these geographical features are acceptable to beryllium incorporated into the “Blue Homeland Law,” purportedly wrong the model of the International Law of the Sea.