Erdogan Cites International Law While Turkey Keeps Casus Belli

Stay connected to Greek City Times for Free on Google News
Click NOW

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s UN General Assembly line — that Turkey wants issues settled through good-neighbourly ties and international law — drew a sharp Greek reply.

Since 1995 the Turkish National Assembly has treated a Greek move from 6 to 12 nautical miles of territorial sea as a casus belli. Article 2(4) of the UN Charter bars the threat or use of force against another state’s territorial integrity. Article 3 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) gives every state the right to set territorial waters at 12 nautical miles. Turkey has not signed UNCLOS. Greece and more than 150 other states have. Tasouli argues the 12-mile rule now has the force of customary law, even for non-parties — a claim Ankara rejects.

She also points to the 2019 Turkey–Libya maritime memorandum. Greece calls it illegal and void because it ignores the maritime rights of islands such as Crete, the Dodecanese and Kastellorizo. UNCLOS Article 121 says inhabited islands with an economic life generate an EEZ in the same way as mainland coasts.

In New York Erdogan repeated his call for an Eastern Mediterranean conference. Days earlier, Tasouli notes, he returned to the demilitarisation of Greek islands. Greek officials also cite repeated Turkish flights and sails in airspace and waters Athens claims.

On minorities she cites Lausanne: Thrace’s minority is defined as Muslim, not Turkish; Greeks of Istanbul, Imbros and Tenedos are a national minority. That Greek community, she writes, has fallen from about 125,000 in 1923 to about 2,000; the Muslim minority in Thrace has held its size or grown.

Greece, she says, will talk about one difference — the delimitation of maritime zones — if the talks rest on international law and UNCLOS. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis was due to take the same UN podium on Thursday.

Source: Alexia Tasouli, Newsbeast, 23 September 2026.

Stay updated with the latest news from Greece and around the world on greekcitytimes.com.
Contact our newsroom to share your updates, stories, photos, or videos. Follow GCT on Google News and Apple News.