Selcuk Bayraktar, president of drone maker Baykar and son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, escalated Tu...

Selcuk Bayraktar, president of drone maker Baykar and son-in-law of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, escalated Turkey's "Blue Homeland" rhetoric this week with a string of provocative statements about Turkish maritime jurisdiction over Greek and Cypriot waters. Bayraktar framed the disputed maritime zones as Turkey's literal backyard, saying Turkey's land territory covers roughly 783,000 square kilometers while its claimed "Blue Homeland" maritime zones add another 462,000 square kilometers. He described Turkey's land as "the house" and the Blue Homeland as "the garden where we find our peace." He made clear Turkey has no intention of backing down. Just as Turkey would not give up a single room in its house, he said, it will never surrender even a drop of the Blue Homeland. The framing was direct and deliberate. Bayraktar then gave the doctrine a broader dimension, calling the Blue Homeland campaign not merely a technological venture but a fight for justice and independence. He described it as an effort to rebuild a world that has collapsed across all its institutions, language that signals Ankara sees these maritime claims as part of a far larger geopolitical struggle. The Blue Homeland doctrine, which Turkey has pushed for years, claims vast stretches of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean as Turkish maritime territory, directly overlapping with Greek and Cypriot exclusive economic zones. Bayraktar's role as head of Baykar, the company behind the Bayraktar TB2 drone widely used by Turkish-aligned forces, gives his statements added weight as a signal of where Ankara's military-industrial establishment stands. Greece and Cyprus reject the doctrine as a violation of international law and UN maritime conventions. #BlueHomeland #GreeceTurkey #EasternMediterranean