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Türkiye on Friday rejected Greece’s updated Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) map posted on the European Commission’s MSP Platform, calling it an unlawful attempt to impose unilateral claims over disputed maritime areas.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oncu Keceli said in a post on X that Türkiye “rejects this unlawful attempt to create a fait accompli” regarding maritime zones in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean.
Keceli said the updated map—attributed to “competent Greek authorities”—includes maritime zones that overlap with Türkiye’s declared continental shelf.
“It is understood that Greece, which continues to disregard the fundamental principles of international maritime law, is trying to use the MSP map to get the EU to accept an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the Eastern Mediterranean that it has not officially declared,” Keceli said. “Our country rejects this unlawful attempt at a fait accompli.”
Keceli said Türkiye submitted its national MSP on April 16 and officially notified UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission on June 12, following U.N. recommendations.
He also recalled that Türkiye presented its legal position on the outer limits of its continental shelf in the Eastern Mediterranean to the United Nations on March 18, 2020.
Keceli argued that the so-called EEZ areas in Greece’s MSP map fall within Türkiye’s continental shelf and criticized Athens for attempting to legitimize “fantasy” maritime claims.
“Greece’s attempts to legitimize these EEZ fantasies and the outer limits of its continental shelf, which it has not delimited with its neighbors, by inserting them into the MSP map are doomed to fail and constitute unilateral steps that violate international law,” he said.
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