The delimitation of a maritime boundary between Greece and Turkey probably presents a more difficult problem than any other maritime boundary. The reason for this is that the Greek islands occupy most of the Aegean Sea and, with one exception, the eastern rampart of 15 islands lie less than 20 nm from the Turkish mainland. Turkey would be restricted to a very narrow coast zone no wider than 18 nm. While there is agreement that Greece holds sovereignty over these islands there is disagreement about how a maritime boundary should be delimited. Turkey objects to any suggestion that a line of equidistance would be appropriate. Turkey takes the view that equity is the over-riding principle in this case. It regards any arrangement that delivers most of the Aegean Sea and sea bed to Greece, on the basis of the small total areas and population of the Aegean Islands, as inequitable. Turkey and Greece has Unsettled median lines between their own maritime borders. In 2018, Former Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias said Greece is ready to extend its territorial waters from 6 to 12 nautical miles. In the first stage, he said, Greece will expand its sovereignty towards the west from the Diapontia Islands, a cluster of small islands in the Ionian Sea, to Antikythera, an island lying between the Peloponnese and Crete. But the plan is to also do the same in the Aegean.Kotzias said that the move constitutes the “first extension of the country's sovereignty since the Dodecanese became part of Greece in 1947.” Extension in the Ionian is unlikely to cause any objections from its neighbors Italy and Albania. But, the Aegean is a different proposition altogether. Turkey has threatened in the past that such a move, which it says in effect turns the Aegean into a Greek lake, is a cause of war (casus belli).Territorial waters are an extension to the sea of the national sovereignty of a country beyond its shores. They are considered to be part of the country's national territory.They give the littoral state full control over air navigation in the airspace above, and partial control over shipping, although foreign ships (both civil and military) are normally guaranteed innocent passage through territorial waters.Greece has a legal right to extend its territorial sea to 12 nautical miles, as provided for by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. Virtually all coastal states abide by the Law of the Sea, including Turkey, which since 1964 has expanded its territorial waters in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean to 12 nautical miles.When ratifying the Convention, Greece tabled a statement declaring that “the time and place of exercising these rights … is a matter arising from its national strategy.” Successive Greek governments refrained from exercising this legal right. Six nautical miles have been in force since 1936, and since then there has been a continuing debate on whether Greece should extend to 12 nautical miles. If Greece extends its territorial waters in the Aegean, it will increase its control from…
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