Putting our alliances to use

A crucial and recurring question posed with every Greek-Turkish crisis is: How will Greece manage to contain Ankara's aggression? Athens must certainly not give in to the provocations. At the same time, it must safeguard its sovereign rights. Comparing the latest crisis to previous ones, we can see two key differences: In 1976 and 1987, Greece stopped the operation of Turkey's seismic survey vessels using sea and aerial means. This time, we marked a red line along the 6-nautical mile territorial sea boundary and our reactions were restricted to a diplomatic level. What is at stake however is not the defense of our territorial sea, which Ankara has anyway never really questioned, but the defense of our sovereign rights in areas over which Greece asserts exclusive economic zone (EEZ) jurisdiction. In drawing a red line about the 6-nautical mile limit we are essentially sending a...