A report by Bloomberg correspondents in Ankara has raised questions, according to which Turkey is preparing to submit a bill to parliament in order to establish maritime jurisdiction in disputed areas of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. According to sources cited in the report, the move could trigger renewed tensions in a region with existing and potential natural gas reserves.

The draft law is said to represent Turkey’s first step toward consolidating its claims and officially declaring rights over possible natural gas energy resources, according to the same anonymous sources.

However, the report does not clearly explain what exactly this Turkish legislative initiative entails, since Turkey has already submitted to the UN the illegal and unilaterally drawn outer limits of its continental shelf in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is therefore unclear whether this is simply a legislative regulation based on those existing claims.

In the Aegean, meanwhile, it is not known precisely what this regulation would provide for, as Turkey has repeatedly challenged not only Greece’s sovereign rights but also the sovereignty of certain islands, thereby illegally claiming maritime zones that fall under Greek sovereignty.

These moves by Ankara are believed likely to be presented domestically as a response to Greece’s initiatives, including the Greek-Egyptian EEZ delimitation agreement, the Marine Parks project, and the agreement with Chevron for exploration in the blocks south of Crete.