Admiral Iatridis referred to what will change if Greece extends its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles.
Greek-Turkish: On the issue raised by the Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in his interview with ANT1 yesterday (7/11), when and if Greece will expand its territorial waters, to 12 nautical miles south of Crete, the Admiral took a position Kontantinos Iatridis.
We remind you that on 20/1/2021, the Greek Prime Minister had stated from the floor of the Parliament during the discussion of the draft law for the extension to 12 nautical miles of the Aegean zone in the Ionian Sea: “We reserve the right to extend territorial waters in Crete and elsewhere when we choose”,
On Monday night (7/11) Mr. Mitsotakis said to Nikos Hatzinikolaou, referring to the possible extension of our territorial waters to 12 nautical miles south of Crete: “We will do it whenever and when we decide, at the moment we decide. “, he added that “all those who criticize us have not done anything about it”.
With reference to the Turkish-Libyan memorandum, he noted that no one recognizes it and confirmed that Athens wants to make an opening to Libya in order to delimit the EEZ between us, in order to explore the prospect of jointly exploiting wealth-producing resources with Libya.
In fact, the prime minister revealed that very soon, in one or two days, as he said, seismic surveys will begin for the extraction of natural gas in the two plots southwest of the Peloponnese and Crete by exxon mobil, something that will contribute to the energy security of wider area.
The importance of the expansion of Greece’s territorial waters was mentioned by retired Vice Admiral Konstantinos Iatridis, speaking in the news bulletin of Kontra News,
“No Greek government will sit down to discuss whether the islands are Greek or not. The issue is one. That of the EEZ and continental shelf delimitation based on the international law of the sea which Turkey has not recognized, but produces a National effect. So that’s where we should stop. I think Erdogan sometimes bluffs. Even if we go to The Hague for these issues, as Turkey says it wants, it will not accept it.
Because even if we go to them, it will not be able to implement the Blue Homeland, that the Blue Homeland is not a pursuit of Turkey, it is a strategy of Turkey. Therefore it will spoil all her plans. And if we accept it, it will be seen that it is a bluff from Turkey. Turkey wants us to go to a bilateral agreement, it does not want a legal solution, it wants a political solution for Greece to give in, in essence to capitulate, without war, to what Turkey wants. And this is never going to happen and no Prime Minister will discuss these issues.”
