The Turkish government has again raised the issue of the sea borders in the Aegean, disputing the current status in the Aegean, via a statement released by its foreign ministry representative.

According to the official statement: “There are a series of interrelated issues between Greece and Turkey in the Aegean. The fact that there have been no sea borders determined between Greece and Turkey via an current international treaty is among one of these problems. We (Turkey) maintain our position with regards to these matters.- Our country desires a permanent resolutions to all these matters…- Under this perception we are in talks with Greece within the existing channels of dialogue”.

Of course, if official Turkey signed and ratified the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea — as have 99 percent of all coastal states and 100 percent of EU members — it wouldn’t manufacture any problems with sea borders, continental shelves, EEZ etc.

It should be noted that the expressions used in the statement are less provocative than previous instances.

The Greek side responded through the Foreign Ministry representative, Konstantinos Koutras, underlining that the Turkish representative’s statement is not clear regarding ‘the non existence of determined sea borders between Greece and Turkey’. He continued by saying that the borders are ‘clearly defined on the basis of international treaties (1923 Lausanne Treaty, 1926 Athens Protocol, Italian-Greek agreement and the 1932 Protocol)’. “These treaties are powerful and are binding for Turkey, and therefore, any legal disputes raised are groundless and are contrary to international Law”, said Koutras.