Greece will be able to build two new major marine parks announced earlier in the Aegean Sea and Ionian Sea by the end of this year amid objections from neighbor and regional rival Türkiye, according to its environment and energy minister on Wednesday.
Speaking during an international ocean conference in Athens, Theodoros Skylakakis said scientific studies to determine details such as which species will be protected and what measures must be taken will be completed and implemented by year's end.
“Real protection needs to be backed by real science,” Skylakakis said.
The creation of the park in the Aegean has irked Türkiye, which has accused Athens of exploiting environmental issues to push a geopolitical agenda. Greece’s Foreign Ministry retorted that Ankara was “politicizing a clearly environmental issue.”
The NATO allies have been at odds for decades over a variety of issues, including territorial claims in the Aegean.
Ömer Çelik, the spokesperson for President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling party, said Wednesday that Türkiye would “not allow” the creation of marine parks in the Aegean and called on Greece to abandon plans that would “harm” efforts to improve ties.
Relations have been improving over the past year following a period of heightened tensions that saw the countries’ warships face off in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“We consider this a step that sabotages the normalization process and that this unilateral approach is an exploitation of environmental sensitivities,” Çelik said.
“We would like to remind Greece once again that it should not deviate from the path of diplomacy, that no steps that would harm normalization should be taken and that Türkiye will in no way allow actions toward the declaration of marine parks in the Aegean Sea,” he said.
The park in the Aegean will have a series of rocky islets at its core and aims to protect seabirds, covering more than 8,000 square kilometers (3,088 square miles) or just over 6.6% of Greece’s territorial waters.
The park in the Ionian Sea in western Greece will focus on the protection of marine mammals and extend over 14,000 square kilometers (over 5,400 square miles) from north of the island of Kefalonia to Antikythira in the south, covering 11% of Greek territorial waters.
A new system to monitor the parks that will include the use of drones, satellites and artificial intelligence will be ready by 2026, Skylakakis said, with monitoring by traditional methods until then.
The parks' creation was part of Greece’s pledges during the Our Ocean Conference. Other measures include a ban on bottom trawling in national marine parks by 2026 and in all marine protected areas by 2030, reducing plastic pollution and mapping marine habitats of protected areas.
Nearly 120 countries and 20 international and regional organizations attended the two-day conference, raising $11.3 billion in more than 460 commitments for marine-related environmental protection, organizers said.
The announcement came ahead of Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis’ visit to Ankara next month to reciprocate President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s landmark visit to Athens last December.
Greece and Türkiye, both NATO members, have long been at odds over issues including where their continental shelves start and end, energy resources, flights over the Aegean Sea and policy toward the ethnically divided island of Cyprus.
They have taken high-profile steps to improve their ties in recent years, notably since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
During Erdoğan's visit to Greece three months ago, they agreed to boost trade, keep communication channels open, seek military confidence-building measures to reduce tension and work on issues that have kept them apart, notably in the Aegean Sea.
While official statements have been positive, the issues are longstanding and deep-rooted. Neither side expects the process to be without turbulence.
Earlier in January, Ankara and Athens reached respective deals with Washington for fighter jets, raising concerns about fresh skirmishes in the region.
Ankara has repeatedly warned its neighbor against entering an arms race with Türkiye, particularly on building a military presence on the disputed Aegean islands since the 1960s, in violation of postwar treaties.
Greece's purchase of F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. and the upping of defense budgets are meant to counter the protection of Turkish interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. Greece says it needs to defend the islands against a potential attack from Türkiye, but Turkish officials said continued militarization of the islands could lead to Ankara questioning their ownership.
For Mitsotakis, the demarcation of the continental shelf and economic exclusive zone is the only "difference" between the countries, but even if the issue isn't resolved, Türkiye and Greece "should be able to coexist and focus on a positive agenda."
