The government has chosen to take its case against Turkey to the highest international level and in particularly forceful terms, following the ratification of the Turkey-Libya memorandum by Libya’s House of Representatives. Kyriakos Mitsotakis took it upon himself to convey Greece’s position, using the UN Security Council platform in New York to send a clear message to Ankara, as well as to critics at home.The prime minister’s intervention had a strong political and symbolic impact. He chose to present the Turkey-Libya memorandum as a direct challenge to the rules of the international law of the sea, placing particular emphasis on the geographic reality of the eastern Mediterranean.
“It is illegal, it is arbitrary and it runs counter to geography itself,” he said, stressing that “international law cannot be applied selectively” and that the rules governing the seas cannot be changed to serve the ambitions of individual states.
The most striking moment of the intervention came when Kyriakos Mitsotakis presented a map to members of the Security Council to show that the delimitation Turkey and Libya are seeking to impose disregards the Greek islands situated between their coastlines.
Using the map, the prime minister reminded the Council that islands such as Crete, Rhodes, Karpathos and Kasos are not uninhabited islets, but living communities with a history and economic activity, whose rights cannot be overlooked.
“Geography cannot be rewritten,” was the message that summed up his argument, with the map serving as a visual case for Greece’s international interlocutors. He also reiterated that no bilateral agreement can deprive a third country of its sovereign rights and that the recent ratification of the memorandum by the Libyan parliament does not, in Greece’s view, change its illegal nature.
Establishing facts on the ground
The government is seeking to make clear that it will not accept the creation of facts on the ground in the eastern Mediterranean, while also seeking to strengthen Greece’s diplomatic position by rallying partners and regional powers.
The prime minister’s initiative also has a domestic audience. The opposition has criticised the government’s handling of the issue, while Antonis Samaras and, in a more moderate tone, Kostas Karamanlis have repeatedly raised issues concerning foreign policy and relations with Turkey.
In this context, Kyriakos Mitsotakis’s appearance before the Security Council can also be seen as an effort to show that the government is taking the initiative, actively defending Greece’s positions and not simply making statements after adverse developments.
“The message was clear: the Turkey-Libya memorandum violates international law, geography and common sense. Our partners and allies now know exactly where Greece stands,” Deputy Foreign Minister Tasos Chatzivasileiou said in an interview with ERT.
He stressed that Turkey and Libya do not have coasts facing one another that would allow them to delimit maritime zones between them. Asked about Ankara’s move to offer Cairo whatever it takes to secure an agreement of their own, he commented: “Geography is a very exacting science. An EEZ can be delimited only on the basis of international law; it cannot be turned into a bazaar.”