A maritime border dispute often pits Türkiye against its neighbor Greece in the Aegean Sea. Most recently, the issue revived after an Italian-flagged cable-laying ship started operating near the Turkish continental shelf.
Turkish Defense Ministry sources said on Thursday that the ship was warned on July 22 not to enter Turkish waters, and Turkish naval ships were dispatched to the area to monitor it.
Türkiye issued two navigational telexes, or Navtex, in June over the work of the Italian-registered C/S Teliri, designating its area of operation within the Turkish continental shelf. The area between the islands of Rhodes and Crete lies within a region disputed between the two neighbors. No official statement regarding the Navtex was made by Turkish or Greek officials. Navtex is a maritime communications system that allows ships to inform other vessels about their presence in an area, as well as other information.
Turkish media outlets reported in June that Greece and the Greek Cypriots on the divided island of Cyprus south of Türkiye attempted to violate the Turkish continental shelf more than 10 times recently and that their attempts were blocked by Turkish military and diplomatic efforts.
The C/S Teliri lays cables under the sea as part of a deal between Egypt, Israel, the Greek Cypriot administration and Greece. One day before the Turkish Navtex was issued on June 24, the Greek Cypriots issued a telex regarding the area of work of the vessel. Türkiye, in response, issued another, describing the other as issued by an “unauthorized station,” emphasizing that the said area was within the Turkish continental shelf. The telex said it was an attempt by the Greek Cypriot administration to legitimize their illegal claims and that they would not be accepted by Türkiye. The second Navtex gave coordinates of the area where the vessel was working and highlighted that it was in Turkish waters.
Türkiye, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, has rejected the maritime boundary claims of Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration, stressing that these excessive claims violate the sovereign rights of both Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriots. Greece and much of the international community do not recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) on the island.
Defense Ministry sources said that the matter was coordinated by relevant authorities and the ship was allowed to operate in designated coordinates before being escorted out of the Turkish continental shelf by naval vessels. Sources pointed out the counter-Navtexs issued by Türkiye and said Turkish Naval Forces were closely monitoring the operations of the Italian vessel. They started by saying that Türkiye thanked Greek and Italian authorities for respecting the maritime borders of Türkiye and the cooperation.
The dispute over the waters dividing them arose again this spring between Türkiye and Greece when Athens announced that it would build two marine parks in the Aegean and Ionian Seas by the end of 2024, despite objections by Türkiye.
The creation of the park in the Aegean has irked Ankara, which has accused Athens of exploiting environmental issues to push a geopolitical agenda. Greece’s Foreign Ministry retorted that Ankara was “politicizing a clearly environmental issue.” The NATO allies have been at odds for decades over a variety of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean. A Turkish official speaking to Daily Sabah in May hinted that Türkiye may map out its own marine parks in the region in apparent retaliation. The official has stated that Greece did not consult with Türkiye on the matter and sought to impose its fait accompli.
After a long period of tensions marked by disputes over irregular migration, the Cyprus dispute, energy exploration and territorial sovereignty in the Aegean, Türkiye and Greece have been taking confidence-building steps for a fragile normalization of their relations, which moved into a new chapter with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s landmark visit to Athens in December. Erdoğan later received Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in Türkiye while the two leaders are expected to meet again in an upcoming NATO summit in the United States.
During the visit, the sides announced a friendship declaration, visa facilitation for Turkish citizens for 10 Greek islands in the northern Aegean for up to seven days and the decreased flow of irregular migrants to Greece.
While officials on both sides have expressed commitment to maintaining the positive climate, the issues are longstanding and deep-rooted, and neither side expects the process to be without turbulence, particularly in the Aegean, where Turkish and Greek jets often scuffled until very recently.
Earlier in January, Ankara and Athens reached respective deals with Washington for fighter jets, raising concerns about fresh skirmishes in the region.
Ankara has repeatedly warned its neighbor against entering an arms race with Türkiye, particularly on building a military presence on the disputed Aegean islands since the 1960s, in violation of postwar treaties.
The rapprochement between Türkiye and Greece was endangered again last week as officials from the two countries traded barbs over Cyprus. Remarks by the Greek defense minister branding Türkiye as an “invader” on the island and a threat by the health minister to dispatch fighter jets to Ankara infuriated Turkish officials. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan urged the Greek prime minister to rein in his defense minister, while Turkish defense minister Yaşar Güler played down the threat of the Greek health minister and invited him to Türkiye as “a tourist.”
“Türkiye monitors all steps Greece is taking and intervenes in case of need,” Erdoğan said on Wednesday about recent developments, although he underlined his commitment to better ties with Athens.
