Four PASOK Members of the European Parliament filed a written question Monday to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, de...

Four PASOK Members of the European Parliament filed a written question Monday to EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, demanding she take action against Turkey's declaration of two "national marine parks" in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean that Greek opposition parties say violate international law and Greek sovereign rights. Turkey issued two presidential decrees on August 16, establishing marine parks based on its "Blue Homeland" doctrine. The first park covers waters around the Kastellorizo island cluster in the southeastern Aegean, and the second spans the sea between Samothrace and Lemnos in the north. Both parks, according to the PASOK MEPs, ignore the maritime zones that Greek islands are entitled to under UNCLOS, the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, and encroach on areas of Greek continental shelf and exclusive economic zone. The four MEPs, Giannis Maniatis, Nikos Papandreou, Sakis Arnaoutoglou, and Nikolas Farantouris, asked Kallas what concrete measures the EU intends to take to support Greece against what they called Turkey's unilateral and illegal actions. They also called on the Greek government to respond through official diplomatic channels, warning that no downplaying of this new provocation is acceptable. Greece's SYRIZA party also condemned the move. SYRIZA parliamentary group president Rena Dorou described the marine parks as the latest link in a chain of Turkish aggression, noting that Turkish drones have continued to violate Greek airspace while Erdogan signed off on these decrees. She warned that the Blue Homeland doctrine is expected to be codified into Turkish law as early as October. Both opposition parties accused the Mitsotakis government of failing to build a coherent national strategy against Turkey over the past seven years. Greece's foreign ministry has not yet announced a formal diplomatic response to the decrees. #Greece #Turkey #Aegean