Turkish media reacted to the Greek Maritime Spatial Planning that was released on Wednesday, with one outlet even complaining that Turks would not be able to swim in Aivali (Αϊβαλί, Turkish: Ayvalık), Smyrna (Σμύρνα, Turkish: İzmir), or Halicarnassus (Ἁλικαρνασσός, Turkish: Bodrum).
“With the Greek map, we will not be able to swim either in Ayvalık or Izmir,” Turkish media reported on Thursday after Athens announced the Marine Spatial Planning a day earlier.
Haber Global TV network: “Greece continues to make provocative moves in the Aegean. Besides, Turkey makes it clear that the expansion of territorial waters will be a cause for war.
“Greece has claims that are not valid. It claims that it can define maritime borders with the islands. But international law does not say anything like that.
“If we listen to their own theories, then we will not be able to swim in the sea even from Ayvalik, Izmir, or Halicarnassus because with these theories, everything belongs to them, and as they go along, they may even claim territories from us. There is a lot that can be said about their map.
“There are also provocative positions mentioned on the map. Reference is made to Greece’s right to extend its territorial waters to 12 miles in the Aegean. Greece claims that this is a right that arises from international law and reserves the right to use it at the appropriate time.”
“Greece continues with the Seville map. Provocation in the Aegean with a map,” writes the Hürriyet newspaper.
“Map – scandal in the Aegean. Maximalist positions – They did not calculate the Turkish-Libyan memorandum”
Hürriyet writes: “Greece has announced a map showing what? Its maximalist ambitions in the Aegean as ‘Marine Spatial Planning Areas.’ The map was drawn up based on Greek positions, which state that even the smallest islands in the Aegean have full (100%) continental shelf rights and that Turkey is not granted any rights other than its territorial waters.
“Turkey’s position on the ‘Blue Homeland’ and the Turkey-Libya agreement were not taken into account. This map, which will be sent to the EU Commission in the coming days, is almost identical to the ‘Seville map’ announced by the EU.
“On the map, although Greek territorial waters in the Aegean are shown as 6 miles, it is stated that ‘Greece reserves the right to extend up to 12 miles.’ Greece’s goal is for this map, which reflects its maximalist ambitions, to be registered for the first time as an ‘official document’ in the EU.”
Sözcü: “Greece presents a map of 12 miles and Ankara is watching”
“There is a risk that the Aegean will become a Greek lake.”
The newspaper reports: “Greece will submit to the European Commission its ‘maximum maritime jurisdiction map’, which shows the 12-mile territorial waters and Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Maritime Spatial Planning is defined as a technical document that provides for the sustainable use of the seas in sectors such as the environment, transport, energy, and fisheries.
“However, Greece is preparing this document to include ‘maximum claims’ to disputed areas such as the EEZ borders and 12-mile territorial waters. Thus, the map becomes a positional document even though it does not create a real situation.”
Yücel Acer, chief researcher at the National Research Center for the Sea and Maritime Law of Ankara University, told CNN TÜRK: “On this map, with this line we show the outer limit of the Maritime Spatial Planning.
“Outside the territorial waters, and east of this line, it shows the planning that Turkey is doing in the area. This is not an area of sovereignty.
“It is an action that Turkey has done, and it explains what work it can do in this area. Of course, this is an ongoing project, it can be improved and updated for the work. But in the Aegean, it takes the median line as a basis and shows the area of the Maritime Spatial Planning that Turkey is doing.”
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