New Turkey maritime draft bill fuels EastMed tensions with Greece, Cyprus

ANKARA — Turkey on Tuesday unveiled a draft bill that would formalize its maritime claims in the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean and Black seas, raising the stakes in long-running disputes with Greece and Cyprus over maritime boundaries, offshore energy rights and regional influence.

The draft was unveiled at a press conference at Ankara University’s National Center for the Sea and Maritime Law, which prepared the text.

Speaking at the press conference, Cagri Erhan, a foreign policy adviser to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and deputy chair of the presidency’s Security and Foreign Policies Council, said he expected the draft to become a formal proposal and then law “in a short time,” without specifying a timeline.

The draft would set Turkey’s territorial waters at 12 nautical miles in the Black and Mediterranean seas, while keeping them at 6 nautical miles in the Aegean Sea, where Ankara opposes any Greek extension beyond the current limit.

It would also provide a legal framework for Turkey’s continental shelf and exclusive economic zone claims, including rules requiring Turkish authorization for economic, scientific and environmental activities in areas Ankara defines as falling under its maritime jurisdiction. 

Erhan described the text as “a document that most clearly sets out Turkey’s view of the seas.”

EastMed posturing

The draft bill comes as Ankara seeks to strengthen its position in the Eastern Mediterranean amid growing cooperation among Greece, Cyprus and Israel, which Turkey views as encroachment on its regional influence.

Ankara views the increasing energy and defense cooperation among the three countries as part of a broader effort to sideline Turkey from Eastern Mediterranean energy routes and security arrangements. 

By moving to formalize its maritime claims, Ankara seeks to strengthen its hand in disputes over continental shelf rights, exclusive economic zones and access to potentially energy-rich waters.

The move also complements Turkey’s controversial 2019 maritime delimitation agreement with Libya’s Tripoli-based government, a deal that allowed Ankara to assert rights across a wide corridor of the Eastern Mediterranean. 

Greece and Cyprus, in turn, vehemently reject the agreement, arguing that it ignores the maritime rights of Greek islands and encroaches on their own maritime boundaries. 

Roots of the maritime dispute

The dispute stems from competing Turkish and Greek interpretations of maritime rights in the Aegean Sea. 

Ankara views Greece’s claim to 10 nautical miles of airspace and its efforts to extend territorial waters to 12 nautical miles as a maximalist position, arguing that the move would give Athens control over more than 70% of the Aegean.

Athens, in turn, argues that its airspace and maritime claims are consistent with international law. It maintains that its islands — including Kastellorizo, located about 570 kilometers (354 miles) southeast of the Greek mainland and just off Turkey’s southern coast — are entitled to territorial waters and continental shelf rights independent of the mainland.

The issue has brought the two NATO allies close to confrontation in the past. In 1995, the Turkish parliament passed a resolution declaring any unilateral Greek extension of its territorial waters in the Aegean Sea beyond 6 nautical miles a "casus belli," or act of war. 

The bill also concerns Turkey’s dispute with the Republic of Cyprus — which Ankara does not recognize — over offshore energy blocks that Nicosia has licensed for oil and gas exploration but which Turkey says overlap with its continental shelf.

The island remains divided between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus, an EU member state, and the breakaway north, recognized only by Ankara. The division followed Turkey’s 1974 military intervention after a Greek-backed coup. Turkey, Greece and Britain remain guarantor powers under the island’s post-independence arrangements.

Turkey’s controversial exploration and drilling activities in contested waters between 2017 and 2019 prompted the EU to impose sanctions on Ankara in 2019.

Citing what it called “unauthorized” hydrocarbon exploration and drilling in waters claimed by Cyprus, the bloc imposed a series of measures against Ankara including travel bans and asset freezes on individuals and entities involved in the activities. 

Greece, Cyprus dismiss the draft

The draft bill drew dismissal and criticism from Greece and Cyprus. Greek government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis described the draft as aimed solely “for domestic consumption.”

“Any unilateral action carried out through national legislation — meaning a bill passed by a state — obviously carries absolutely no weight whatsoever under international law,” he said Monday, following Turkish media reports over the draft. 

The Republic of Cyprus also dismissed the draft as unfounded. “National legislation passed by a third country that attempts to unilaterally redefine maritime zones is legally unfounded,” Cypriot government spokesperson Konstantinos Letymbiotis said Tuesday.