2024-04-13 20:14:41
In the 14 (plus) months since the earthquakes in southern Turkey have roughly equated to the easing of tensions in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, the recent reminder that Ankara has not taken the “grey zone” theory off the table brought to the surface again the difficulties of the Greek-Turkish political dialogue.
Environment Minister Theodoros Skylakakis announced the creation of two parks in the Ionian and Aegean seas to protect marine fauna in islets and rocky islets that constitute sensitive ecosystems, and Turkey with a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs recalled that many of these areas include uninhabited island formations whose sovereignty has not been determined. In the case of the Aegean, the marine parks will be many and scattered, from the waters off Milos to the ecosystem of Nisyros and not a single one.
Apparently, Ankara is reacting to the part of that which is located east of the Cyclades. According to well-informed sources, the biggest concern on the Turkish side is the inclusion in the islands of the Sirna complex, located in the northern Carpathian Sea near Astypalaia. It is an uninhabited – now – islet, of large size, which is included in the European Ecological Network NATURA 2000 as a Special Protection Zone for some seabirds. Sirna (Ardacik in Turkish) is included in the list of islands that Ankara considers to be of indefinite sovereignty. Obviously, Athens firmly rejects all these objections, it remains, however, particularly interesting to see what will be the final location of the marine parks in the Aegean in the coming months, since Ankara has directly expressed its reaction, linking it to the ongoing Greek-Turkish Dialogue process. This is a clear indication of the way in which Ankara perceives the spirit of the Declaration of Athens, as a substantial suspension of the exercise of any competence of Greece in the Aegean, even with regard to environmental issues. According to some estimates, the Turkish reaction is also due to the fact that Ankara had not been notified of this announcement. It is also recalled that the issue of NATURA 2000 zones, as a possibility of interconnecting the sovereignty of the Aegean islands through the EU, had been highlighted with considerable intensity by the former President of the Republic Prokopis Pavlopoulos, a fact which has not been forgotten in Ankara and contributed to occasional Greek-Turkish rhetorical tensions.
An interesting detail can also be found in the choice of Ankara to be represented at the “Our Ocean” Conference that takes place next week in Athens, at a low official level (Director General of the Ministry of the Environment). It is recalled that the announcements of the marine parks in the Aegean were made in view of the specific international conference.
All this is recorded while no substantial progress has been made in the Greek-Turkish talks of the last few months and ahead of the meeting of the two leaders Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara in mid-May. The two leaders (who are also scheduled to meet in July on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Washington) are keeping pace with Greek-Turkish contacts and their meeting will determine whether the recent frictions are capable of breaking the period of calm between Athens and Ankara. It is still not clear whether the two foreign ministers Giorgos Gerapetritis and Hakan Fidan will manage to have a short meeting in the coming weeks, in order to talk about the latest developments. In a few days (April 22) the next round of military Confidence Building Measures (CBM) will take place in Athens, where no particular development is expected, at least based on the agenda of the discussions which are limited to very formal issues.
On April 26, the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy, Costas Fragogiannis, will go to Istanbul for the positive agenda, which has its own, limited momentum. Perhaps the most interesting experiment is the seven-day visa granted, following an exception secured by the EU, to Turkish citizens who wish to visit a total of 10 islands of the Eastern Aegean (Kalymnos, Limnos, Kos, Lesvos, Chios, Samos , Leros, Rhodes, Symi and Kastellorizo). Until now it seems that there is a much increased interest from Turkish visitors to the islands of the Eastern Aegean. It remains to be seen if there will be a possible increase in the number of visitors to these islands which (with the exception of Rhodes) do not have the tourist traffic of other areas in the Aegean.
Source kathimerini.gr
Vasilis Nedos