In the face of an unprecedented and escalating Turkish aggression, the government is limited to responding to communicative diplomacy, seeking out statements of support, often tepid, from partners and allies. However, an active foreign policy should not only respond reflexively to the challenges of the other side, but also contribute to a coherent strategic plan, the ultimate goal of which is to engage Turkey in a meaningful dialogue based on international law. After all, Greek-Turkish relations are dynamic, questions arise every day (declarations, issues of fisheries, immigration, violations). Therefore, the dialogue should not be strictly limited to economic diplomacy and any initiative to discuss other issues should be wary.

The expansion of territorial waters is not a panacea, but part of the same coordinated strategy of putting targeted pressure on Turkey. I remind you that the corresponding political decision of the SYRIZA government on the expansion of departments was already announced in 2018, during the ceremony of handing over Kotsias to Tsipras, and the corresponding law was announced in ESEP in 2019 and in Parliament. (We considered that the previous choice of expansion by decrees of the President had, on the one hand, a constitutional problem, given that the Constitution expressly provides – article 27, par. 1 – that no change in the boundaries of the territory can be made without a law passed by an absolute majority of all number of deputies.On the other hand, a similar major issue had to be discussed at length in Parliament.)

Early elections did not allow the adoption of the law. However, New Democracy at the time also demagogued this national choice, describing it, with statements by the heads of the ministries of foreign affairs and defense, as dangerous because it “undermines the fundamental positions of our foreign policy” and as “adhering to Turkey’s argument”. We, of course, as a responsible patriotic force, supported divisional expansion in the Ionian Sea when the ND government introduced it to Parliament in a motion without self-criticism. But the government’s controversial policy continued: although in January 2021 the Minister of Foreign Affairs explicitly announced, as we asked earlier, the expansion of territorial waters to the south and east of Crete, since then he has been completely inactive, transferring the matter to the Greek calendar. Obviously, it would be much more preferable for the expansion to take place precisely then, at a politically neutral time.

Alexis Tsipras returned this proposal to the last Central Committee of SYRIZA-PS, with the first step being the expansion of our coastal zone south and east of Crete, to Kastellorizo ​​and then to other places in the Eastern Mediterranean, as deemed necessary. The logic of the proposal goes far beyond the need to mediate an illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum so that the crisis of 2020 does not repeat itself, when the Turkish research vessel Oruch Reis conducted research inside our continental shelf, up to 6.5 nautical miles. from Kastelorizo ​​and 8 nm. from Rhodes without consequences.

The first step should be the resumption of negotiations with Libya, as well as the continuation of negotiations with Egypt to extend the current Greek-Egyptian agreement.

This action – the exercise of sovereignty – is part of a larger plan in which Greece will invite neighboring countries in the Eastern Mediterranean to negotiate to delineate the EEZ/coastal shelf with appeal to The Hague. The first step should be the resumption of negotiations with Libya, as well as the continuation of negotiations with Egypt to extend the current Greek-Egyptian agreement. At the same time, our country should seek to put pressure on Turkey to sit down at the negotiating table on the delimitation of maritime economic zones with us and other neighboring countries on the basis of the law of the sea. It goes without saying that the participation of Cyprus is a necessary condition for such negotiations. In this context, after the Cypriot elections, a new impetus could be created for the resumption of intercommunal negotiations. At the same time, an impetus could be given to the resumption of preliminary negotiations between Turkey and Greece, which do not involve third countries and are focused on the Aegean.

Today, when we see that even countries like Israel and Lebanon, which are at war, are finding a way to increase the exploitation of hydrocarbons, we need to act creatively and energetically. Today, we can and must seek encouragement and pressure from our allies on Turkey to sit down at the negotiating table of the countries of the Eastern Mediterranean. The table at which, after all, the President of Turkey himself is open, since in the past he presented a similar proposal for the corresponding international conference.

Now is not the time for procrastination or communicative diplomacy.

* Mr. Giorgos Katrugalos – Professor of Public Law, Head of the Department of Foreign Affairs of SYRIZA-P.S.