The deputy president and head of the Defense department of the Kemalist Republican People’s Party (CHP) of the main opposition, Yanki Bagzioglou, is returning to the issue of the Greek government’s creation of a marine environmental protection park in the Aegean.
In an interview with the opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet, Yanki Baggioglu says that scientific studies will be carried out in the area in question with new equipment to detect new faults in the seabed at a depth of up to 2000 meters, claiming that “it is very possible that some of the areas that will be investigated to coincide with Turkish areas of maritime jurisdiction”.
In addition, as he notes, “considering that seismic survey equipment can also be used for gas and oil surveys, it would not be wrong to say that the data resulting from these studies can also be used to locate reserves (including hydrocarbons)’.
In his interview, Bagzioglou talks about “unilateral initiatives by Greece, which will form the basis for Greece’s so-called sovereignty claims”. Asked by the journalist of the newspaper “what can Turkey do against these initiatives?” the deputy chairman of the CHP responds: “Turkey should use its state wisdom and declare maritime areas that will support Turkey’s sovereign claims and protect its rights and interests, on the basis of reciprocity, in areas that will deemed appropriate in the Aegean Sea and the Eastern Mediterranean, within the limits of our maritime jurisdiction areas as defined by the United Nations Organization, named “Special Marine Protected Areas” etc. It would be correct to register these declared as “Protected Areas” in the EU and the UN (through the International Maritime Organization – IMO) and in this context the Ministry of Foreign Affairs should assume a coordinating role. In addition, new plans should be produced based on common sense in platforms such as the International Maritime Commission.”
Continuing, the CHP deputy chairman states: “In order to protect the legitimacy of these declared ‘Protected Areas’ on the international stage, it is obviously important that the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of the Interior work closely together, the Navy Command and the Command of Coast Guard to display a flag and be in these areas and be ready to take the necessary measures against possible violations in these areas. In addition, in the context of reciprocity, the possibility of conducting seismic surveys in the Aegean Sea to locate faults by our seismic research vessels should be considered.”
On the same issue, shortly before midnight on Tuesday, the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement, in which it spoke of “the status of certain islands, islets and rocks whose sovereignty has not been granted to Greece by international agreements” and ” geographical formations with disputed status”, stressing that Ankara will not accept “any de facto situations that Greece may create”.
However, the issue was previously highlighted by Yanki Baggioglu, with his written statement published on Saturday by the Turkish news agency ANKA and subsequently reproduced by Turkish media.
The deputy chairman of the CHP, who in addition to being the head of the party’s Defense department is also a retired rear admiral, also maintains that Greece since the day of its foundation considers its claims in the Aegean as a state policy and states: “Over some periods, in the context of this policy, sought to achieve these ambitions through projects that are seemingly innocent, such as protecting the environment or conducting scientific research.’
Read also: The Aegean is on fire: Turkey questions Greek sovereignty – SYRIZA: Micropolitical management by the government
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