Aegean dispute: Encyclopedia II - Aegean dispute - Maritime and areal zones of influence

Aegean dispute - Maritime and areal zones of influence

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.^[1]

Aegean dispute - The territorial waters

Both Greece and Turkey currently possess territorial waters extending 6 nautical miles around their territories. Territorial waters give the littoral 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 that can only be binding to the signing parties but not to others. 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.^[2]

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".^[3]

Aegean dispute - The national airspace

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,^[4] 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;^[5] 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.

Aegean dispute - The continental shelf

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.^[6]

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.^[7] 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.^[8]

Tensions over the continental shelf were particularly high during the mid 1970s and again 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. These were perceived as a dangerous provocation by Greece, which led to a buildup of mutual military threats in 1976 and again in 1987.^[9] The issue has since lost some of its importance, as it is now believed that the oil expectations of the time were exaggerated.^{[citation needed]}

Aegean dispute - The Flight Information Regions

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.

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 since 1980 returned to recognizing Athens FIR in its original demarcation.^[10] In practice, the FIR demarcation is currently no longer a disputed issue.

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.^[11]

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.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Maritime and areal zones of influence", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki