No Aegean “gray zones” exist, Greece tells Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - Greece’s Foreign Ministry has immediately rejected claims by Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu who said there are “gray zones” in the Aegean as Turkey is moving to claim waters off Greek islands and in the Continental Shelf, The National Herald reports.

“The legal status of the Aegean and of (the Aegean) islands is clearly determined by international treaties and there is no room for dispute,” Greece’s Foreign Ministry said, adding that Turkey’s interpretation of the UN Law of the Sea is “unfounded” and “illegal.”

“Greece has chosen the path of international legality,” the ministry said, urging Turkey to do the same, although Turkey doesn’t recognize the Law of the Sea unless invoking it in its favor against Greece and Cyprus, where Turkish ships are drilling for oil and gas.

In a televised interview on CNN Turk, Cavusoglu said, “There are islands whose sovereignty has not been established” either in the Treaty of Lausanne – which Turkey doesn’t recognize – or in the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty.

Cavusoglu again said his country disputed Greek ownership of seas, after a Turkey-Libya deal divided them, claiming waters near major Greek islands including Crete and Rhodes.