New Turkish maritime bill fuels EastMed tensions with Greece and Cyprus

ANKARA — Turkey unveiled a draft law Tuesday that would formalize its maritime claims in the Aegean Sea, the eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea, raising the stakes in long-running disputes with Greece and Cyprus over maritime borders, offshore energy rights and regional influence.

The draft was unveiled during a press conference at the National Center for the Sea and Maritime Law of Ankara University, which prepared the text.

Speaking at the news conference, Cagri Erhan, foreign policy adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and vice chairman of the presidency’s Security and Foreign Policy Council, said he expected the draft to become a formal proposal and then law “in a short period of time,” without specifying a timetable.

The plan would set Turkey’s territorial waters at 12 nautical miles in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, while keeping them at 6 nautical miles in the Aegean Sea, where Ankara opposes any Greek expansion beyond the current limit.

It would also provide a legal framework for Turkey’s claims to the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone, including rules requiring Turkish authorization for economic, scientific and environmental activities in areas that Ankara defines as falling within its maritime jurisdiction.

Erhan described the text as “a document that sets out Turkey’s vision on the seas very clearly.”

EastMed Posture

The bill comes as Ankara seeks to strengthen its position in the eastern Mediterranean amid growing cooperation between Greece, Cyprus and Israel, which Turkey sees as an encroachment on its regional influence.

Ankara views growing energy and defense cooperation between the three countries as part of a broader effort to exclude Turkey from Eastern Mediterranean energy routes and security arrangements.

By formalizing its maritime claims, Ankara seeks to strengthen its position in disputes over continental shelf rights, exclusive economic zones and access to potentially energy-rich waters.

The move also complements the controversial 2019 maritime delimitation agreement between Turkey and Libya’s Tripoli-based government, a deal that allowed Ankara to assert its rights over a wide corridor of the eastern Mediterranean.

Greece and Cyprus, in turn, vehemently reject the agreement, arguing that it ignores the maritime rights of the Greek islands and encroaches on their own maritime borders.

The roots of the maritime conflict

The dispute stems from competing Turkish and Greek interpretations of maritime rights in the Aegean Sea.

Ankara views Greece’s claim to 10 nautical miles of airspace and its efforts to expand territorial waters up to 12 nautical miles as a maximalist stance, arguing the move would give Athens control of more than 70 percent of the Aegean Sea.

Athens, in turn, asserts that its air and maritime space claims are consistent with international law. It maintains that its islands – including Kastellorizo, located about 570 kilometers (354 miles) southeast of the Greek mainland and just off Turkey’s southern coast – are entitled to territorial waters and continental shelf rights independent of the mainland.

This issue has brought the two NATO allies to the brink of confrontation in the past. In 1995, the Turkish parliament passed a resolution declaring that any unilateral Greek extension of its territorial waters in the Aegean Sea beyond 6 nautical miles was a “casus belli”, or act of war.

The bill also addresses the dispute between Turkey and the Republic of Cyprus – which Ankara does not recognize – over offshore energy blocks that Nicosia has licensed for oil and gas exploration but which Turkey says straddle its continental shelf.

The island remains divided between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state, and the separatist north, recognized only by Ankara. The division followed Turkey’s 1974 military intervention after a Greek-backed coup. Turkey, Greece and Britain remain guarantor powers under the island’s post-independence agreements.

Turkey’s controversial exploration and drilling activities in the disputed waters between 2017 and 2019 prompted the EU to impose sanctions on Ankara in 2019.

Citing what it called “unauthorized” hydrocarbon exploration and drilling in waters claimed by Cyprus, the bloc imposed a series of measures against Ankara, including travel bans and asset freezes on individuals and entities involved in these activities.

Greece and Cyprus reject the project

The bill sparked rejection and criticism from Greece and Cyprus. Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis described the project as being intended for “domestic consumption” only.

“Any unilateral action carried out through national legislation – that is, a bill passed by a state – obviously has absolutely no weight under international law,” he said on Monday, following Turkish media reports on the project.

The Republic of Cyprus also rejected the project as unfounded. “National legislation adopted by a third country that attempts to unilaterally redefine maritime zones is legally unfounded,” Cypriot government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said on Tuesday.