Turkey has declared two new "national marine parks" by presidential decree, and Athens is calling them illegal. The park...

Turkey has declared two new "national marine parks" by presidential decree, and Athens is calling them illegal. The parks, signed into law by Erdogan, overlap with areas Greece considers part of its own continental shelf, covering zones between Samothrace and Lemnos in the northeast Aegean and between Rhodes and Kastellorizo in the southeast. Greece's Foreign Ministry rejected the move outright, stating that the unilateral establishment of protected marine areas outside Turkey's national jurisdiction produces no legal effects whatsoever. Athens made clear the decrees create no fait accompli and do not alter the existing legal status of the maritime zones involved. Greek officials see the choice of locations as deliberate. The Samothrace-Lemnos zone touches areas Greece views as part of its potential continental shelf, while the Rhodes-Kastellorizo zone connects directly to Turkey's "Blue Homeland" doctrine, which argues Greek islands should hold no maritime rights beyond their territorial waters. Greece's ruling party spokesperson Alexandra Sdoukos said Turkey's attempt to designate marine zones outside its own territorial waters simply does not carry legal weight. She linked Turkey's reaction to Greece's own expanding diplomatic and energy presence in the Eastern Mediterranean. The move drew a response at the European level too. Four Greek MEPs from PASOK, including Yannis Maniatis and Nikos Papandreou, filed a formal written question to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, asking what measures the EU intends to take in support of Greece. They noted the decrees follow Turkey's submission of similar maps to UNESCO and form part of a broader pattern of challenging Greek sovereign rights. Domestically, criticism of the government came from across the spectrum. Former Prime Minister Antonis Samaras called Turkey's move "another act of international piracy" and warned that Ankara is working to institutionalize the Blue Homeland doctrine in Turkish law. SYRIZA accused the government of lacking a coherent national strategy toward Turkey, while Elliniki Lysi argued the "calm waters" policy has given Turkey room to advance its positions. #GreeceVsTurkey #Aegean...