Ankara to map marine parks in tit-for-tat move against Athens

After Greece announced it would create two marine parks in the Aegean Sea, Türkiye launched its own initiative to map similar parks in the region in a tit-for-tat move.

According to a Turkish official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on talking to the media, Türkiye’s Transportation and Infrastructure Ministry will plan to map out its own marine parks in the region, Daily Sabah reports.

Greece will create the parks by the end of this year, the country’s environment and energy minister said in April. This announcement was harshly criticized by neighbour Türkiye, which has accused Athens of exploiting environmental issues to push a geopolitical agenda.

The park in the Aegean will have a series of rocky islets at its core, covering more than 8,000 square kilometres (3,088 square miles) or just over 6.6% of Greece’s territorial waters. The second park in the Ionian Sea in western Greece will extend over 14,000 square kilometres (over 5,400 square miles) from the north of the island of Kefalonia to Antikythira in the south, covering 11% of Greek territorial waters. The parks will be monitored using drones, satellites and artificial intelligence after 2026. The area would be reserved for scientific research where ship traffic is controlled and there is no construction activity.

A Turkish diplomatic source said that Ankara was not priorly informed of the issue nor has it received any kind of consultation or offer for cooperation. The move is seen as a fait accompli.

When Türkiye dubbed the move as a “fait accompli,” Greece retorted that Ankara was “politicizing an environmental issue,” although the Turkish Foreign Ministry voiced that “Türkiye is always ready to cooperate with Greece in the Aegean Sea.” Instead of reciprocal accusations, the two countries need to find a recipe to overcome this latest challenge posed by unilateral declarations of marine parks. Athens needs to recognize Ankara’s offer of cooperation and halt the creation of the parks until coordination is reached at an official level between the relevant institutions. Marine parks and transboundary conservation efforts, in general, are an ideal way to preserve nature while nourishing cooperation among states and their people. Once again, dialogue is essential.