Turkey has expanded its Aegean dispute with Greece beyond islands and territorial waters, now targeting offshore wind fa...

Turkey has expanded its Aegean dispute with Greece beyond islands and territorial waters, now targeting offshore wind farms, marine parks, and undersea electricity cables. Ankara objected to Greece's new renewable energy framework in August 2026, arguing that international treaties never transferred sovereignty over certain geographical formations to Athens. Greece rejected the claim outright. The dispute has moved from diplomatic disagreement into physical confrontation. A Greek cable vessel carrying out maintenance northwest of Chios on September 13, 2026 was working under a navigational warning issued by the Lemnos coast station. Turkey has challenged Greece's authority to authorize that work, and the same vessel has faced Turkish intervention twice this year alone. Turkey also declared two marine parks of its own in August 2026, one covering waters between Lemnos and Samothrace. Athens says parts of those boundaries extend into areas where Greece holds maritime rights, making the parks a direct assertion of competing jurisdiction at sea. In the northeastern Aegean, Greek authorities have recorded frequent Bayraktar drone flights around Lemnos and Samothrace since mid-August. President Erdogan has warned Athens against reinforcing Aegean islands Turkey considers demilitarized. Greece is pressing ahead regardless, accelerating the Achilles Shield air and missile defense program with Israel. The Crete-Cyprus electricity cable is the largest flashpoint on the horizon. Seabed surveys are expected to resume as early as October in waters affected by Turkey's contested 2019 maritime agreement with Libya. Greece says it will not ask Ankara's permission, since doing so would legitimize claims Athens considers illegal. The United States has backed these regional energy links and now faces pressure to make clear it opposes using military vessels to block civilian survey work. #Greece #Turkey #Aegean