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The term Aegean dispute refers to a set of interrelated controversial isses between Greece and Turkey over sovereignty and related rights in the area of the Aegean Sea. This set of conflicts has had a large effect on the relations between the two countries since the 1970s. It has repeatedly led to crises coming close to the outbreak of military hostilities, most notably around 1987 and in early 1996. The issues in the Aegean fall into several categories:

• The delimitation of the territorial waters,
• The delimitation of the national airspace,
• The delimitation of Exclusive economic zones and the use of the continental shelf,
• The delimitation of Flight Information Regions (FIR), and their significance for the control of military flight activity,
• The issue of the demilitarized status assigned to some of the Greek islands in the area,
• The status of an undetermined number of small islets which are regarded as “grey zones” of undetermined sovereignty by Turkey, with the tiny islets of Imia/Kardak being the best-known example.

As of 1998, the two countries have been trying to overcome the tensions through a series of diplomatic measures, particularly with a view to easing Turkey's accession to the European Union. However, as of 2006, differences over suitable diplomatic paths to a substantial solution are still unresolved.

See also: Foreign relations of Turkey, Foreign relations of Greece

Maritime and areal zones of influence

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Several of the Aegean issues deal with the delimitation of both countries' zones of influence in the air and on the sea around their respective territories. These issues owe their virulence to a geographical peculiarity of the Aegean sea and its territories. While the mainland coasts of Greece and Turkey border the Aegean Sea on both sides and represent roughly equal shares of its total coastline, the overwhelming number of the many islands in the Aegean, which are scattered all across it, belong to Greece. In particular, there is a chain of Greek islands lined up along the Turkish west coast (Thasos, Samothrace, Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and the Dodecanese islands), partly in very in close proximity to the mainland. They cut off large parts of it from the open sea, and effectively block Turkey from extending any of its zones of influence beyond a few miles off its coastline. The breadth of maritime and areal zones of influence, such as the territorial waters and national airspace, are traditionally measured from the nearest territory of the state in question, including its islands. This means that the division of these zones in the Aegean is inherently biased in favour of Greece. It also means that any possibly extension of such zones is bound to benefit Greece much more than Turkey proportionally.

According to a popular perception of these issues in the two countries, Turkey is concerned that Greece might be trying to extend its zones of influence to such a degree that it would turn the Aegean effectively into a "Greek lake". Conversely, Greece is concerned that Turkey might try to "occupy half of the Aegean", i.e. establish Turkish zones of influence towards the middle of the Aegean, beyond the chain of outlying Greek islands, turning these into a kind of exclave surrounded by Turkish waters, and thus cutting them off from their motherland.

The territorial waters

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Both Greece and Turkey currently possess territorial waters extending 6 nautical miles around their territories. Territorial waters give the litoral state control over some aspects of shipping, although foreign vessels (both civil and military) are normally guaranteed innocent passage through them. Most other countries world-wide have by now extended their territorial waters to 12 nautical miles, as has Turkey in some other parts of its coast. In the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (signed in 1982, come into force in 1994), 12 miles were fixed as the international norm. Greece, which is a party to this Convention, has stated that it reserves the right to apply this rule and extend its waters to 12 miles at some point in the future, although it has never actually attempted to do so. This has fuelled Turkish concerns over a possible disproportionate increase in Greek-controlled space. Turkey has refused to sign the Convention, and therefore considers it as res inter alios acta, i.e. a treaty with no binding force to non-parties. Greece, on the other hand, holds that the 12-mile rule is not only treaty law but also customary law at the same time, as per the wide consensus established among the international community. Against this, Turkey is in the position of a consistent objector, having consistently upheld that the special geographical properties of the Aegean Sea make a strict application of the 12-mile rule in this case illicit in the interest of equity. From the perspective of international law, it is therefore doubtful whether Turkey can be considered under a legal obligation to accept a unilateral expansion to 12 miles by Greece.

Tensions over the 12-mile question ran highest between the two countries in the early 1990s, when the Law of the Sea was going to come into force. On 9 June 1995, the Turkish parliament officially declared that unilateral action by Greece would constitute a casus belli, i.e. a reason for military action by Turkey. This declaration has been condemned by Greece as a violation of the Charter of the United Nations, which forbids "the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state".

The national airspace

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The national airspace is normally defined as the airspace covering a state's land territory and its adjacent territorial waters. National airspace gives the sovereign state a large degree of control over foreign air traffic. While civil aviation is normally allowed passage under international treaties, foreign military and other state aircraft (unlike military vessels in the territorial waters) do not have a right to free passage through another state's national airspace.

The delimitation of national airspace claimed by Greece is exceptional, as it does not coincide with the boundary of the territorial waters. Greece claims 10 miles of airspace, as opposed to 6 miles of water. Since 1974, Turkey has refused to acknowledge the validity of those outer 4 miles of airspace that extend beyond the Greek territorial waters. Turkey cites the statutes of the ICAO of 1948, as containing a binding definition that both zones must coincide. Against this, Greece argues (1) that its 10-mile claim predates the ICAO statute, having been fixed in 1931, and that it was acknowledged by all its neighbours, including Turkey, before and after 1948, hence constituting an established right; and (2) that its 10-mile claim can also be interpreted as just a partial, selective use of the much wider rights guaranteed by the Law of the Sea, namely the right to a 12-mile zone both in the air and on the water.

The conflicting views about air space have been one of the most frequent and long-standing sources of military irritation between the two countries, as they give rise to regular incidents between fighter jets of the two countries. Turkish air force jets routinely and demonstratively fly in the outer 4-mile zone of contested airspace, while Greek air force jets routinely intercept them and try to force them to leave. This leads to dangerous so-called "virtual dogfights", sometimes involving armed aircraft.

The continental shelf

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In the context of the Aegean dispute, the term continental shelf refers to a littoral state's exclusive right to economic exploitation of resources on and under the sea-bed, for instance oil drilling, in an area adjacent to its territorial waters and extending into the High Seas. The width of the continental shelf is commonly defined for purposes of international law as not exceeding 200 nautical miles. Where the territories of two states lie closer opposite each other than double that distance, the division is made by the median line. The concept of the continental shelf is closely connected to that of an exclusive economic zone, which refers to a littoral state's control over fishery and similar rights. Both concepts were developed in international law from the middle of the 20th century, and were codified in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982.

The dispute between Turkey and Greece is to what degree the Greek islands off the Turkish coast should be taken into account for determining the Greek and Turkish economic zones. Turkey argues that the notion of "continental shelf", by its very definition, implies that distances should be measured from the continental mainland, claiming that the sea-bed of the Aegean geographically forms a natural prolongation of the Anatolian land mass. This would mean for Turkey to be entitled to economic zones up to the median line of the Aegean (leaving out, of course, the territorial waters around the Greek islands in its eastern half, which would remain as Greek exclaves.) Greece, on the other hand, claims that all islands must be taken into account on an equal basis. This would mean that Greece would gain the economic rights to almost the whole of the Aegean.

In this matter, Greece has the UN Law of the Sea on its side, although the Convention restricts the application of this rule to islands of a notable size, as opposed to small uninhabitable islets and rocks. However, since Turkey has refused to join that convention, Greece has no legal instrument to enforce its claim. For this reason, this is the only one of all the Aegean issues where Greece has officially acknowledged that Turkey has legitimate interests that might require some international process of arbitration or compromise between the two sides.

Tensions over the continental shelf were particularly high during the late 1980s, when it was believed that the Aegean Sea might hold rich oil reserves. Turkey at that time conducted exploratory oceanographic research missons in parts of the disputed area, using the research vessel Piri Reis. These were perceived as a dangerous provocation by Greece, which led to a buildup of mutual military threats in 1987. The issue has since lost some of its importance, as it is now believed that the oil expectations of the time were exaggerated.

The Flight Information Regions

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Unlike the issues described so far, the question of Flight Information Regions (FIR) does not affect the two states' sovereignty rights in the narrow sense. A FIR is a mere zone of responsibility assigned to a state within the framework of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). It relates to the responsibility for regulating civil aviation. A FIR may stretch beyond the national airspace of a country, i.e. over areas of High Seas, or in some cases even over the airspace of another country. It does not give the responsible state the right to prohibit flights by foreign aircraft; however, foreign aircraft are obliged to submit flight plans to the authorities administrating the FIR. This has been perceived by both Greece and Turkey as giving the state administering the FIR a certain tactical advantage with respect to military movement in that zone. Two separate disputes have arisen: the issue of a unilaterally proposed revision of the FIR demarcation, and the question of what rights and obligations arise from the FIR with respect to military as opposed to civil flights.

The FIR demarcation

By virtue of an agreement signed in 1952, the whole airspace over the Aegean, up to the boundary of the national airspace of Turkey, is assigned to Athens FIR, adminstered by Greece. Shortly after the Cyprus crisis of 1974, Turkey unilaterally attempted to change this arrangement, issuing a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) stating that it would take over the administration of the eastern half of the Aegean airspace, including the national airspace of the Greek islands in that area. Greece responded with a declaration rejecting this move, and declaring the disputed zone unsafe for aviation due to the conflicting claims to authority. This led to some disruption in civil aviation in the area. Turkey later changed its stance, and has returned to recognizing Athens FIR in its original demarcation, even though the 1974 NOTAM was never officially revoked. In practice, the FIR demarcation is currently no longer a disputed issue.

Military overflights

The current (as of 2006) controversy over the FIR relates to the question whether the Greek authorities have a right to oversee not only civil but also military flight activities in the international parts of the Aegean airspace. According to common international practice, military aircraft normally submit flight plans to FIR authorities when moving in international airspace, just like civil aircraft. Turkey, concerned that Greece might misuse its civil regulation authority in order to gain a tactical military advantage, refuses to do so. Turkey cites the charter of the ICAO from 1948, which explicitly restricts the scope of its regulations to civil aircraft, arguing that therefore the practice of including military aircraft in the same system is strictly optional. Greece, in contrast, argues that it is obligatory, on the basis of later regulations of the ICAO in the interest of civil aviation safety.

This disagreement has led to similar practical consequences as the issue of 6 vs. 10 miles of national airspace, as Greece considers all Turkish military flights not registered with its FIR authorities as transgressions of international air traffic regulations, and routinely has its own air force jets intercepting the Turkish ones, claiming that this is in the interest of aviation safety. In popular perception in Greece, the issue of allegedly illegal Turkish flights in the international part of Athens FIR is often confused with that of the Turkish intrusions in the disputed outer 4-mile belt of Greek airspace. However, in careful official usage, Greek authorities and media distinguish between "violations" ("παραβιάσεις") of the national airspace, and "transgressions" ("παραβάσεις") of traffic regulations, i.e. of the FIR.

The islands

While all the issues described so far are related to zones of influence at sea or in the air, there have also been a number of disputes related to the territories of the Greek islands themselves. These have related to the demilitarized status of some of the main islands in the area; to Turkish concerns over alleged endeavours by Greece to artificially expanding settlements to previously uninhabited islets; and to the existence of alleged "grey zones", an undetermined number of small islands of undetermined sovereignty.

Demilitarized status

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Several of the Greek islands in the eastern Aegean have at various times during the 20th century been placed under a status of demilitarization. This was done, after the decades-long period of wars between Greece and Turkey which culminated in the Greco-Turkish War (1919-1922), in order to ease possible Turkish fears of further Greek expansionism. After the Cyprus crisis of 1974, Greece proceeded to break the demilitarized status of these islands, at first secretly but later openly too. Turkey denounces this as an aggressive act by Greece and as a breach of international treaties. Under a legal perspective, three groups of islands must be distinguished: (a) the islands right off the Turkish Dardanelles straits, i.e. Lemnos and Samothrace; (b) the Dodecanese islands in the southeast Aegean; and (c) the remaining northeast Aegean islands (Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and Ikaria).

Lemnos and Samothrace

These islands were placed under a demilitarization statute by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, to counterbalance the simultaneous demilitarization of the Turkish straits area (the Dardanelles and Bosphorus). The demilitarization on the Turkish side was later abolished through the Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits in 1936. Greece holds that, by superceding the relevant sections of the earlier treaty, the convention simultaneously removed also the Greek obligations with respect to these islands. Against this, Turkey argues that the Montreux treaty did not mention the islands and has not changed their status. Greece, however, cites Turkish official declarations to that effect made in 1936, assuring the Greek side that Turkey would consider the Greek obligations abolished.

The Dodecanese

These islands were placed under a demilitarization statute after the Second World War by the Treaty of peace with Italy (1947), when Italy ceded them to Greece. Italy had previously not been under any obligation towards Turkey in this respect. Turkey, in turn, was not a party to the 1947 treaty, having been neutral during WWII. Greece therefore holds that the obligations it incurred towards Italy and the other parties in 1947 are res inter alios acta for Turkey, and that Turkey thus cannot base any claims of its own on them. Turkey argues that the demilitarization agreement constitutes a so-called status treaty (an objective régime), where according to general rules of treaty law such an exclusion does not hold.

The remaining islands

The remaining islands (Lesbos, Chios, Samos, and Ikaria) were placed under a partial demilitarization statute by the Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. With respect to these islands, Greece has no legal grounds for claiming that the demilitarized status has been formally superceded. However, in recent years it has argued that it is entitled to discount its former obligations on the grounds that, after the Turkish occupation of Cyprus and various other aggressive acts committed by Turkey, re-armament is an act of legitimate self-defence.

Greek settlement programmes

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In mid-1995, the Greek government launched an initiative to provide economic incentives to private individals to settle permanently on some of the small, mostly uninhabited peripheral islets in the area. Turkish media and some government officials reacted with suspicion, citing as a reason for concern that Greece might use this to prejudice a future arrangement regarding the continental shelf issue in its favour. This would be because the UN Law of the Sea distinguishes between islands that can sustain human habitation and those that cannot. Turkey at that point did not question Greek sovereignty over these islets as such; however, it insisted that it would not accept an artificially changed status quo as a basis for later negotiations. Greece claimed that the motives behind this programme were simply to boost regional infrastructure and economic development in its outlying rural areas, which were suffering severely from depopulization. This issue soon lost much of its relevance, as from 1996 onwards it became overshadowed and absorbed by the much more serious issue of the so-called “grey zones”, where the sovereignty of the islands itself was in question.

“Grey zones”

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The first time a dispute between the two countries in the Aegean touched on questions of actual sovereignty over territories was in early 1996, on the occasion of a naval havary at the tiny barren islets of Imia/Kardak, situated between the Dodecanese island chain and the Turkish mainland. The conflict was originally caused by factual inconsistencies between maps of the area, some of which assigned these islets to Greece, others to Turkey. The media of the two countries took up the issue and gave it a nationalistic turn, before the two governments even had the time to come to a full technical understanding of the true legal and geographical situation. Both governments were then forced prematurely to adopt an intransigent stance, publicly asserting their own claims of sovereignty over the islets, in order to save face. The result was military escalation, which was perceived abroad as quite out of proportion with the size and significance of the rocks in question. The two countries were at the brink of war for a few days, until the crisis was defused with the help of foreign mediation.

During the crisis and in the months following it, both governments were busy elaborating legal arguments for why each considered the islets their own. The arguments exchanged concerned the interpretation of the Treaty of Lausanne of 1923, which forms the principal basis for the legal status of territories in most of the region, as well as certain later diplomatic dealings between Turkey, Greece and Italy.

For a more detailed summary both of the political/military events of the crisis, and of the legal arguments exchanged, see the article on Imia/Kardak.

During this process, another question arose: the same legal reasons Turkey was bringing forward with respect to Imia/Kardak could be seen to apply not only to this one case, but to a possibly large number of other small formations across the Aegean too. Most of them, unlike Imia/Kardak, had undeniably been in factual Greek possession, which had never been challenged by Turkey, and several of them were inhabited.

Since then, the Turkish government has spoken of “grey zones” of undetermined sovereignty, i.e. of islets whose possession had never been validly transferred away from Turkey. However, it has not attempted to factually sieze possession of any of the islets in question, and in fact has avoided giving an exact delimitaton of its claims.

Strategies of conflict resolution

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See also

• Imia/Kardak dispute
• Cyprus dispute

References

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• Article related to the Imia crisis.
• Greek Embassy news about Airspace Violations #1.
• Greek Embassy news about Airspace Violations #2.
• Article at F-16.net about "Turkish provocation over the Aegean sea".
• Turkish army denial of the violations

For further provisional references, see the Talk page, and the article on Imia/Kardak

• Foreign relations of Cyprus
• Disputed territories
• Politics of Greece
• Politics of Turkey