Greece's Foreign Ministry fired back at Turkey Thursday after Ankara challenged a new Greek law governing renewable ener...

Greece's Foreign Ministry fired back at Turkey Thursday after Ankara challenged a new Greek law governing renewable energy projects on Aegean islands, calling Turkey's objections "baseless, absolutely unacceptable claims" that Greece flatly rejects. The new Greek legal framework, which entered into force Wednesday, establishes rules for siting renewable energy and storage facilities across Greek territory, including the Aegean islands. Turkey's Foreign Ministry responded by warning against "unilateral actions" in what it described as a "closed or semi-closed sea," while Turkey's Defense Ministry went further, claiming some of the islands covered by the law have sovereignty "not transferred to Greece through international agreements." Athens responded with a blunt statement: "Greek sovereignty is defined clearly and definitively by international treaties, and cannot be questioned. Any other approach contravenes international law and will receive a fitting response." The Greek Foreign Ministry noted that Turkey had lodged a nearly identical complaint just days earlier over a separate Greek regulatory framework on tourism, calling the pattern "an obsession with revisionist positions that have no legal foundation." Greece made clear it sees only one legitimate bilateral issue with Turkey, which is the delimitation of the continental shelf and Exclusive Economic Zone. All other territorial claims, Athens says, are off the table. Adding to the tension, Turkey has issued presidential decrees establishing two marine parks in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean. One sits in the northern Aegean between Lemnos and Samothraki. The other encircles Kastellorizo, effectively cutting it off from Rhodes. Greece views both as part of a long-running Turkish strategy, dating back to the 1970s, to build maritime claims by ignoring the legal weight of Greek islands in determining sea boundaries. Greece has its own marine parks in the Southern Cyclades and Ionian Sea, both lying entirely within undisputed Greek territorial waters. #Greece #Turkey #Aegean