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Türkiye declared two "national marine parks" in the Eastern Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean through presidential decrees dated Aug. 15 and published in the Turkish Official Gazette on Aug. 16.
Greece's Foreign Ministry called the move illegal to the extent that the parks extend into international waters and onto the so-called Greek continental shelf.
Under Presidential Decree No. 11626, signed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Türkiye designated the area bounded by the coordinates and map attached to the decree as the "Fethiye-Kas Marine National Park," citing Article 3 of Türkiye's National Parks Law No. 2873.
According to the accompanying map from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry's General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks, the park spans the provinces of Mugla and Antalya, falls under the 4th and 6th Regional Directorates, and covers an area of 21,706.03 square kilometers.
A second decree, No. 11627, also signed Aug. 15, designated a separate area as the "North Aegean Marine National Park," spanning Canakkale and Tekirdag provinces under the 1st and 2nd Regional Directorates, covering 1,742.14 square kilometers, according to the accompanying map.
The Fethiye-Kas park extends from Fethiye to Kas, around the area near Kastellorizo (known in Turkish as Meis), while the North Aegean park lies between Lemnos and Samothrace.
Greece's Foreign Ministry said the decrees create marine parks that extend beyond Turkish territorial waters, calling their establishment illegal insofar as they cover high-seas areas.
"No State is entitled, according to the Law of the Sea, to unilaterally establish marine protected areas in areas beyond national jurisdiction," the ministry said in a statement.
"Furthermore, the marine parks in question are also illegal insofar as they extend within the Greek continental shelf. This is, therefore, an action that creates no legal effect whatsoever, either in respect of the high seas or in respect of Greece's rights over its continental shelf," the statement added.
The ministry said Türkiye's unilateral declaration of "national" marine parks in areas beyond its jurisdiction "cannot create faits accomplis or affect in any way rights deriving from International Law."
It noted that Greece had "taken the initiative to establish National Marine Parks in the Ionian Sea and in the Aegean Sea, in full compliance with the Law of the Sea and exclusively within Greek territorial waters."
"Actions that attempt to create faits accomplis or to unilaterally affect the status of maritime zones in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean violate International Law, do not contribute to the consolidation of good-neighborly relations and seriously undermine efforts to maintain relations of mutual understanding between the two countries," the ministry said.
It added that Greece "will continue to act consistently and decisively to protect its sovereign rights, safeguard the freedoms of the high seas as provided in the Law of the Sea, as well as to protect the marine environment in accordance with International Law."
Türkiye is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea, with the Sea of Marmara forming an internal sea separating its Asian and European parts.
Ankara's territorial waters extend up to 6 nautical miles in the Aegean Sea and 12 nautical miles in the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea.
Türkiye has declared an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) only in the Black Sea and has established maritime boundaries with neighboring countries through delimitation agreements, including with Libya and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) in the Eastern Mediterranean.
The Aegean continental shelf remains a subject of dispute between Türkiye and Greece in the absence of a delimitation agreement.
Türkiye is party to regional marine environment protection agreements including the Barcelona Convention for the Mediterranean and the Bucharest Convention for the Black Sea.
The Turkish decrees follow a similar move by Greece in July 2025, when Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced plans to create two marine parks, one in the Ionian Sea and one in the southern Aegean's Cyclades.
"Today, I am delivering on that promise with the establishment of two new Marine National Parks, one in the Ionian Sea and the other in the Southern Cyclades, in the iconic Aegean," Mitsotakis said in a video message at the time, describing the parks as among the largest marine protected areas in the Mediterranean and noting that bottom trawling would be prohibited within them.
Türkiye's Foreign Ministry responded at the time by stating that "unilateral actions should be avoided in closed or semi-enclosed seas such as the Aegean and the Mediterranean."
The ministry said Greece's initiative would have no legal effect, particularly given unresolved Aegean disputes between the two countries, including sovereignty questions over certain islands, islets and rocks not ceded to Greece under international treaties.
It referenced an earlier April 9, 2024, statement reiterating that position and said the views expressed then remained valid.
"International maritime law encourages cooperation, including environmental issues, between coastal states in closed or semi-enclosed seas. In this context, we reiterate that Türkiye remains ready to cooperate with Greece, as one of the two coastal states in the Aegean Sea," the ministry said at the time.
It added that efforts to invoke environmental protection in connection with unresolved Aegean sovereignty issues "will not have any legal consequences today, as they did not in the past," and said Türkiye would announce its own marine environmental protection projects "in the coming days."
The ministry also emphasized that a sincere and comprehensive approach based on international law, equity and good neighborliness should be adopted to resolve outstanding issues, under the Athens Declaration of Dec. 7, 2023, which prioritizes dialogue between the two countries.
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