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+ | ====== Imia, EEZ, and Enosis: Cyprus in the Context of Greco-Turkish Antagonism (Brochure) ====== | ||
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+ | <WRAP center round info 80%> | ||
+ | This translation was created for the purposes of archiving and does not originate from the original creators of the text. | ||
+ | </ | ||
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+ | ===== Historical Note ===== | ||
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+ | This brochure was published by [[el: | ||
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+ | It is the introduction to the demostration ”Imia, EEZ, and Enosis: Cyprus in the Context of Greco-Turkish Antagonism”, | ||
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+ | ====Content===== | ||
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+ | <WRAP right noprint round download 30%> | ||
+ | * **File in Greek.** | ||
+ | * [[https:// | ||
+ | * {{ wiki: | ||
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+ | * For archived material of type (PDF, ODF), and for the creation of collections of texts (book creator), use the corresponding choices provided on the right of the page of each article. | ||
+ | </ | ||
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+ | **Imia, EEZ, and Enosis: Cyprus in the Context of Greco-Turkish Antagonism** | ||
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+ | When in November of 1993 the governments of Clerides and A. Papanadreou signed the 'Dogma of the Unified Defence Space' (ΔΕΑΧ), they triggered a new era of Greco-Turkish tensions. This agreement took place within the context of a weakened Turkish state which had to confront, among other, the insurgency of the Kurdish PKK. It was therefore conceived within the framework of the attempt to promote the imperialist plans of the Greek state who considered the ' | ||
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+ | The deal foresaw a qualitative and quantitative upgrading of the National Guard, the coordination of the staff of the two Defence ministries, the creation of appropriate operational infrastructure (read air base in Paphos) and joint exercises. From 1994 the annual Nikiforos-Toxotis exercise were established, | ||
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+ | Two years later, in 1996, the declared casus belli threatened to materialise. In January 1996 the drums of war are played louder than ever in the past 20 years during a series of provocations involving the uninhabited rocky islets in the Aegean. When of course the Greek state realised that it would not declare war it retreated in disarray; however, the tension continued and was transferred to Cyprus. The tension over Imia led to the approval of a new gigantic armament program which culminated in the purchase of Russian-made S-300 missiles by the Clerides government, who would eventually postpone their installation on the island. In exchange, the Cypriot state installs the likewise Russian-made TOR-M11 missiles with a range that reaches up to eastern Turkey. The tension on the island reaches boiling point in the summer of 1996. On 2 August, on the initiative of the Cyprus Motorcyclists Federation, a motorcade demonstration sets off from Berlin with the aim of finishing in Kyrenia. What followed were the murders of Isaac and Solomou by the Grey Wolves and T/C police, which mark the culmination of Greco-Turkish tensions on the island. Meanwhile, the delivery of the captured leader of the PKK Öcalan by the Greek to the Turkish state and the deactivation of the ' | ||
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+ | The state of tension that had formed in the 90s reached a lull in the first few years of the 21st century only to return in the past months with force to the forefront. The tune to which the war drums are being played are above all regarding the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ). Here we quote Wikipedia: | ||
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+ | //"In accordance with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982), the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is considered to be the maritime area within which a State has the right to explore or exploit marine resources, including the production of energy from water and wind. It stretches beyond the national waters of a country to 200 nautical miles from the coastline. Conventional use of the term EEZ includes both national waters and the continental shelf beyond the 200-mile limit.// | ||
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+ | //Greece has not defined its EEZ with any of its neighbouring countries, though it retains the right to enforce it in accordance with the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and international legislation. However, the Greek side has not acted on any such claim so far.// | ||
+ | //The Turkish proclamation of war does not concern the EEZ. Turkey argues that the Aegean, as a semi-enclosed maritime area, must be placed under a special status, in contrast to other semi-enclosed seas such as the Adriatic, or the fully enclosed Black Sea. Turkey has not signed the UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, with which the national waters of a country may be extended to 12 nautical miles. Although it has maintained a permanent objection to the relevant article of the Convention, it has itself extended its national waters to 12n.m. in the Black Sea. In 1995, when the treaty was ratified by the Greek Parliament, Turkey stated that if Greece extended its national waters beyond 6 nautical miles, it would be seen as an attempt to restrict Turkey as well as a direct violation of its national sovereignty. With this claim the so-called casus belli is still valid today."// | ||
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+ | Therefore, the delimitation of marine areas in this form is a relatively new institution. On the other hand, the impossibility of imposing recognition on them is the subject of controversy, | ||
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+ | On the other hand, the Turkish state claims a delimitation of EEZs according to its own interpretation. It does not recognise the EEZs of the Greek islands in the Aegean and it maintains that the general regulations should not be applied in the present case due to the very close proximity of the Greek islands to the Turkish coast and that they would block access to the sea of the SE Mediterranean for 70 million people for the sake of the few dozens of residents that populate most Greek islands of the area. | ||
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+ | With Turkey reopening domestic but also external fronts, one being against the PKK, Cyprus remains anything but uninvolved, with military and economic agreements with Israel and Greece, which followed from military exercises and discussions regarding the exploitations of natural gas in Block 12 of the Cypriot EEZ. The agreement on a joint venture with Israel not only upgrades the geopolitical importance of the island but leads to new nationalist fervour, with Turkey warning that it will intervene by any means if Turkish interests are not taken into account with regards to deposits in the area. This is the context within which we are following the famous violations of the Cypriot EEZ by the Turkish vessel Barbaros which is conducting surveys for natural gas in the Mediterranean. At the same time we are once again spectators to the ' | ||
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+ | In Cyprus, the cherry on top of the cake of the nationalists' | ||
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+ | Beyond the smugness of such statements and media excitement we cannot but help but feel the danger around the contemporary Greco-Turkish tension and their nationalist followers in Cyprus. The facts of the day show clearer than ever that both capital and the states that are involved with the talks to resolve the Cyprus issue are not interested in its solution. Their position regarding a solution or non-solution changes according to the geopolitical context and their changing pursuits. At this juncture, it seems they are heading towards the strategy of tension, creating a new period of Greek-Cypriot-Turkish conflict and nationalist outrages. The anti-nationalist, | ||
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+ | {{tag> Condition:" | ||
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+ | Groups:" | ||
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+ | Areas: |