Turkey has formally declared two new “national marine parks” in the northeastern Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean, prompting a sharp response from Greece, which says the unilateral designations extend beyond Turkish territorial waters and cannot create legal consequences or alter existing maritime rights.
The geographical location of the parks is central to Athens’ objection. One of the new protected areas stretches along Turkey’s Mediterranean coastline between Fethiye in Muğla province and Kaş in Antalya province. According to Greece, the designation covers a broad maritime area around Kastellorizo, the small Greek island that has long held outsized strategic importance in disputes over maritime zones in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The second park is located in the northeastern Aegean, in a maritime area off the Turkish coast between the regions of Tekirdağ and Çanakkale and extending toward the waters between the Greek islands of Samothrace and Lemnos.
Greece’s Foreign Ministry responded that Turkey’s August 15 presidential decrees establishing the parks extend beyond areas under Turkish national jurisdiction and therefore “produce absolutely no legal effect,” according to the Greek government’s position.
Kastellorizo at center of Mediterranean dispute amidst marine park dispute with Turkey
The location of the Mediterranean marine park is particularly sensitive because of its proximity to Kastellorizo. Although geographically close to the Turkish coast, Kastellorizo is Greek territory and has been at the center of the broader dispute between Athens and Ankara over continental shelf and exclusive economic zone rights in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Greece maintains that its islands generate maritime zones under the Law of the Sea, including continental shelf and exclusive economic zone rights. Turkey disputes aspects of Greece’s interpretation of maritime entitlements in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean and is not a party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Greece has repeatedly communicated its position on island-generated maritime zones to the United Nations.
The new marine park designation does not itself settle those competing claims. However, Athens appears concerned that a protected-area framework extending beyond Turkish territorial waters could be used to reinforce Ankara’s broader position in disputed maritime areas. That is why Greek officials have focused not simply on the creation of environmental parks but on the boundaries chosen for them.
Greece says Turkey cannot create a fait accompli
In its response, the Greek Foreign Ministry said that no country can unilaterally establish marine protected areas outside its national jurisdiction in a manner that affects the rights of other states. Athens said Turkish designations are invalid to the extent that they concern international waters and areas over which Greece claims sovereign rights on its continental shelf. The ministry also stressed that unilateral actions cannot create a fait accompli or affect rights arising under international law.
The dispute reflects a broader disagreement over how maritime space should be organized in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. Greece has also moved ahead with marine and maritime spatial planning initiatives, while Turkey has previously objected to Greek actions in areas where the two countries hold competing views over maritime jurisdiction. The European Union’s maritime spatial planning framework itself does not resolve such boundary disputes, although the European Commission has said EU member states remain obligated to prepare maritime plans.
From environmental protection to geopolitics: Kastellorizo and the marine park dispute with Turkey
Both countries present marine protection as an environmental objective. Turkey already has a number of legally protected coastal and marine areas, including around Fethiye-Göcek and Kaş-Kekova. However, the new declarations have acquired a geopolitical dimension because of where their boundaries extend.
The Mediterranean park places renewed attention on the waters around Kastellorizo, while the northeastern Aegean designation brings the maritime space between Samothrace, Lemnos, and the Turkish mainland into the dispute. For Athens, the concern is that environmental designations could become another instrument through which Turkey projects its maritime claims beyond its six-nautical-mile territorial waters.
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