This time, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar undertook to verbally attack Greece by undertaking the work by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at a Symposium on the Aegean organized in Izmir. He accused Greece of pursuing an expansionist policy, while stressing that Turkey would not allow the expansion of territorial waters by 12 nautical miles.
"Greece continues its false threats and its obsession to equip itself," Akar said, adding that "no plan is likely to be implemented in the Eastern Mediterranean as long as it does not include Turkey and the Turkish people." "Nevertheless, some Greek politicians - transformed into sheep - appear in different places, every day in a different place, and try to create an artificial agenda that has nothing to do with reality."
"We are experiencing a confrontation with Greece over the continental shelf, the area of territorial waters, the airspace, the FIR line, the search and rescue area, the violation of the demilitarized regime of the islands, the sovereignty of islands and islets, whose sovereignty is not He also accused Greece of "provocative attempts at armaments and other provocative activities and practices that restrict the rights of the Turks of Western Thrace, as well as support for terrorist organizations." To these differences are also added problems arising from irregular immigration and the action of FRONTEX ".
"They claim that the borders of the Greek continental shelf reach through the islands in the eastern Mediterranean to mainland Turkey and make illegal claims for almost the entire Aegean Sea. We think that the Aegean should be taken into account as a whole when determining the boundaries of the continental shelf and the borders should be designed by agreement and based on the principle of fairness and in accordance with the rules of international law ".
"If Greece expands its territorial waters to 12 miles, only 1/5 of the Aegean will remain as an open sea area and about 2/3 of it will become Greek territorial waters. "This means that it will become a Greek lake," he added, adding that this would mean that the Turkish navy would not be able to reach the Mediterranean via international waters. Turkey will suffer significant losses in terms of shipping, security and resources in the Aegean. At the same time, even third countries will have to get permission from Greece to cross the Aegean. "Turkey can never accept that."
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