European Commission slams Turkey as Ankara announces drilling in Greek EEZ

Turkey has announce plans to begin gas and oil exploration in a maritime area reaching from the Greek island of Kastelorizo to Libya, with which Ankara has in November, 2019, signed an accord that delimits their putative Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs, though they are not contiguous) by expropriating a huge chunk of Greece's EEZ, particularly around Crete.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, has said that Turkey plans to commence exploration and drilling in the maritime area described in the Turkish-Libyan inter-state agreement, which includes a broad area southeast of Crete.

"Due to our agreement with the official government of Libya we will continue seismic exploration and drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the areas we have delimited with Libya. I must stress that we are determined on this issue," Kalin stated.

Under the terms of the 1982 UN Law of the Sea Convention that area clearly is clearly part of Greece's EEZ as it is within 200 miles from the coast of the island of Crete.

In direct violation of the UN Convention Ankara has steadfastly maintained that islands have no EEZ, a position that was rejected by the US, France, and the entire EU among others.

Turkey is not a signatory to the 1982 Convention.

EU foreign policy chief Borrell blasts Ankara

The Turkish Presidency's announcement coincided with a scathing denunciation of the Turkey-Libya memorandum from the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, who on behalf of the European Commission was responding to a parliamentary question submitted by Greek MEP Stelios Kimbouropoulos (New Democracy).

"On 12 December 2019, the European Council adopted conclusions stating that the Turkey-Libya Memorandum...

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