Turkey’s “exceptionalism” in terms of unilaterally interpreting maritime borders and rights – in lieu of adhering to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) – reached war-torn Libya this week, where Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar presented maps that Ankara claims show Greece “usurping” 39,000 square kilometers of Libya’s continental shelf, between the North Africa coast and the large island of Crete.
The Turkish side, in fact, pressed its assertion that Athens is attempting to deny the two countries their “common (sea) borders” in the eastern Mediterranean.
The latest examples of “Turkography” were published by the Turkish daily “Yeni Safak”, with the first of the two maps showing the alleged “appropriation” of the sea region. The second map shows Turkey’s projected Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) as bypassing the Greek isle of Kastellorizo, in the extreme SE Aegean, and Greece’s and Cyprus’ EEZs separated by Turkey’s “EEZ”.
