Turkey declared two "national marine parks" through Presidential Decrees on 15 August in the northeastern Aegean and eastern Mediterranean. The boundaries of these areas extend beyond Turkish territorial waters, according to a statement from the Greek government.
One of the parks is situated in practice between Lemnos and Samothrace, delimited near the Turkish coasts of Rhaidestos and Çanakkale, in continuation of Imbros and Tenedos. The second park extends from Fethiye, in Mugla province, to Kaş, in Antalya province, an area that in practice isolates Kastellorizo from the rest of the Dodecanese. The Presidential Decrees were adopted by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on 15 August and published on 16 August in Turkey's Official Gazette.
Greece's Ministry of Foreign Affairs responded with a statement on Sunday, calling the establishment of these parks illegal for occupying international waters. According to the statement, no State has the right under the Law of the Sea to unilaterally create protected marine zones outside its national jurisdiction. The ministry also argued that the parks are illegal because they extend into the Greek continental shelf.
Athens emphasised that the Turkish initiative produces no legal effect either on international waters or on Greece's sovereign rights over its continental shelf. The statement warned that actions intended to create accomplished facts or unilaterally modify the regime of maritime zones violate International Law and damage relations between the two countries.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs contrasted Turkish actions with Greece's initiative to create National Marine Parks in the Ionian Sea and the Aegean, established in accordance with the Law of the Sea exclusively within Greek territorial waters. The statement affirmed that Greece will continue to act "with consistency and determination" to protect its sovereign rights and safeguard the freedoms of the high seas enshrined in the Law of the Sea.