The Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday responded to recent Turkish claims regarding the sovereignty of the Aegean islands with the publication of 16 maps, demonstrating “in a vivid and irrefutable way the Turkish illegal unilateral actions and claims.”
The maps begin chronologically with the status quo enshrined in the Lausanne (1923) and Paris (1947) treaties.
They go on to present Turkish claims, beginning with the illegal licensing of the Turkish state oil company (TPAO) for exploration of oil fields in areas of the Greek continental shelf in the North Aegean in 1973, and continuing with the attempt to usurp Greece’s responsibility for Search and Rescue services in half of the Aegean in the 1980s, the “grey zone” theory in the 1990s, further escalation with the granting of new licenses in the Eastern Mediterranean, the endorsement of the “Blue Homeland” as an official doctrine, the “Turkish-Libyan Memorandum,” reaching as far as the Turkish theory of the demilitarization status of the Aegean islands.
Here are the maps:
