COVENTRY, RI
Rhode Island State Senator Leonidas Raptakis is calling on members of Rhode Island’s Congressional delegation to address a serious concern that threatens the territorial integrity of Greece and Cyprus.
Raptakis is calling on them to seek action from the U.S. State Department to block the Turkish government’s plan to consider a bill on so-called “Maritime Jurisdiction Zones”. The bill would seek to give legal support their “Blue Homeland” doctrine, which aims to give the Erdogan regime the power to declare an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) up to 200 nautical miles from Turkey’s coast, ignoring the legal sovereign rights of both Greece and Cyprus. The bill is expected to be submitted to the Turkish Parliament next month.
“The Erdogan regime is trying to attach some sort of legislative legitimacy to their reckless and expansionist Blue Homeland policy”, said Raptakis. “It’s an ill-conceived move designed to dress up rogue ideas, meant to cause chaos in the region, as carrying the weight of law. The problem is that as a NATO member state, Turkey is rejecting the UN’s Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Greece is a party to. Turkey has never signed onto it because they don’t want to be good neighbors in the region”.
Under the proposed legislation, Turkey would:
- unilaterally establish maritime borders in the Aegean and Easter Mediterranean that overlap with Greek and Cypriot zones;
- give the Turkish president the authority to delimit EEZs, regulate fishing rights, where states can authorize energy exploration, and even determine where pipelines and cables can pass; and
- have the ability to contest sovereignty over various islands, islets and sea areas of the Aegean.
Raptakis noted the measure explicitly states that Greece would require Turkish permission for any activity in the area and that Turkish Armed Forces would protect Turkey’s claimed maritime rights and interests.
“This is nothing short of an attempt to unilaterally impose chaos on the region, an ill-conceived effort to turn phony claims into a legal and operational framework,” said Raptakis. “It’s an effort to dismantle Greek and Cypriot sovereignty and sovereign rights, backed up by naval or coast guard enforcement”.
