tagged: Aegean Sea Greece Turkey, continental shelf, dimitris droutas, greek foreign minister, international court of the Hague, kastelorizo, maritime zone

Greek FM to Turkey: Solve the problems or See you in Court!

Posted by keeptalkinggreece in Turkey-GR

Greece has urged Turkey to move forward on a solution to decades-old Aegean problems after the general election in June or to be ready to face the issue at court in The Hague.

“We respect the fact that Turkey is in the run-up to elections right now. But after the elections comes the moment of truth: Either a solution or The Hague,” Greek Foreign Minister Dimitri Droutsas told the daily Hürriyet in an interview Friday last week in Athens. Droutsas’ statement came a few days after he met with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Athens, where the two colleagues discusses bilateral problems in depth.

Turkey and Greece launched “exploratory talks” to identify and find solutions on problems stemming from the Aegean Sea nearly a decade ago but have not been able to make a breakthrough.

Droutsas said the strong personal relationship between Greek Prime Minister Yorgo Papandreou and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan could bypass the quagmires and stereotypes that have plagued Greek-Turkish relations. Noting that Greece and the European Union were expecting Turkey to sign the 1982-dated United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea, Droutsas said, “When Turkey does this, we will be able to make the swift progress that no one thinks is possible today.”

ccording to Droutsas, “The main problem is Turkey’s ‘poor relationship’ with the Law of the Sea.” Noting that Turkey is one of very few countries to not ratify the convention, he said: “I understand that this position from Ankara isn’t set in stone, so I’m waiting for the Turkish government to act. This would give a great deal of momentum to our talks and our relations in general.”

When asked his thoughts about Davutoğlu’s statement that the island of Kastelorizo (Meis in Turkish) should be considered in the Mediterranean rather than the Aegean, Droutsas did not hide his frustration. “Of course this headline disturbed me – it disturbed every Greek. We did have the opportunity to discuss it. Kastelorizo is part of the Dodecanese and its maritime zones overlap Turkey’s. This is the reality of the situation – there are no question marks here,” he stated, adding that Davutoğlu’s comment did nothing but chill the atmosphere.

Read the Full Interview in Hurriyet Daily News