A statement regarding the Turkish map for “marine parks” in the Aegean and the Greek government’s stance was issued by Dimitris Mantzos, head of the Foreign Affairs Central Committee, and Manolis Christodoulakis, head of the Environment Central Committee of PASOK – Movement for Change, expressing the party’s positions against Turkish provocations and the government’s handling of the situation. As they characteristically state: “National sovereignty and the protection of our country’s marine environment are non-negotiable and cannot be subject to fearful self-limitation in the name of ‘avoiding tensions'”.
PASOK on Turkey’s “marine parks”: National sovereignty and marine environment protection non-negotiable
More specifically, as stated in PASOK’s relevant announcement: “Today’s condemnable attempt by Turkey to create new fait accompli in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean through the announcement of supposed ‘marine parks’ challenging our country’s national sovereign rights, constitutes a dangerous escalation of Turkish revisionist strategy and its mapping ‘on paper’.
It is obvious that Greece must not retreat and must not tolerate these new illegal Turkish initiatives, which naturally have no legal validity and produce no legal consequences. We call on the Greek Government not to limit itself to announcements, but to immediately internationalize the issue in the competent bodies of the EU, UNESCO and the UN, emphasizing that environmental protection cannot be allowed to function as a pretext for violating international maritime law.
We demand, once again, the acceleration of the implementation of Greece’s National Marine Parks, including in other areas of the Aegean, with full scientific and institutional documentation. National sovereignty and the protection of our country’s marine environment are non-negotiable and cannot be subject to fearful self-limitation in the name of ‘avoiding tensions’.
