Turkey's Foreign Ministry has objected to Greece's newly enacted Special Framework for Renewable Energy Spatial Planning...

Turkey's Foreign Ministry has objected to Greece's newly enacted Special Framework for Renewable Energy Spatial Planning, claiming the policy has "no legal consequence" for Ankara because it covers areas of the Aegean that Turkey disputes. Spokesperson Oncu Keceli made the statement after Greece activated the framework under Environment and Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou and deputy ministers Nikos Tsafos and Marilena Soukouli. The plan sets stricter rules for where offshore wind farms, energy storage stations, and other renewable installations can be built, with a planning horizon extending to 2050. Turkey's objection goes well beyond energy policy. Ankara is linking a domestic Greek regulatory decision to its long-standing Aegean claims, including its position that certain island formations were never formally transferred to Greece under international agreements. Keceli argued that Greece cannot unilaterally create new facts in a sea that Turkey considers a "closed or semi-closed" body of water, invoking the Law of the Sea and calling for bilateral cooperation. Turkey also referenced the Athens Declaration on Friendship and Good Neighbourliness signed in December 2023, framing Greece's spatial planning as something that should have been coordinated between the two countries first. Athens flatly rejects that framing. Greece's position is that setting rules for where renewable energy projects can be located is a purely domestic matter and an exercise of internal jurisdiction, not a sovereignty arrangement requiring Turkish input. The broader context is that the Aegean is becoming more economically and strategically significant as Greece moves aggressively toward offshore wind development and new energy interconnections. Ankara is pushing back against every Greek initiative that maps energy or planning zones in the Aegean, signaling it will not allow any decision to create a precedent for its own territorial claims. #Greece #Turkey #Aegean