By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed two decrees on August 15 designating marine parks in the Aegean and the Mediterranean, and Greece's Foreign Ministry said on August 16 that the parks are illegal where they extend beyond Turkish territorial waters
The decrees were published on August 16 in Türkiye's Official Gazette, issue 33342. Decree No. 11626 established the Fethiye-Kaş Marine National Park, covering 21,706.03 square kilometers between the Muğla district of Fethiye and the Antalya district of Kaş, to be administered by the 4th and 6th regional directorates of the General Directorate of Nature Conservation and National Parks. Decree No. 11627 established the North Aegean Marine National Park, covering 1,742.14 square kilometers within the provincial waters of Çanakkale and Tekirdağ, centered on Gökçeada. Both decrees cite Article 3 of Law No. 2873 on National Parks as their legal basis.
Greece's Foreign Ministry said the parks have no legal effect over international waters or Greece's continental shelf, arguing that no state can unilaterally establish marine protected areas outside its national jurisdiction under the Law of the Sea. Athens said its own marine parks in the Ionian and Aegean seas remain strictly within Greek territorial waters, and that Türkiye's decrees cannot create a fait accompli or affect rights under international law.
The move follows months of dueling maritime claims. Greece signed a decree in July establishing its own South Aegean Marine Park, part of a maritime spatial planning push Bosphorus News has tracked since Athens asked the EU to intervene over Turkish fishing as the Aegean dispute widened. Türkiye's decrees also land ahead of its Blue Homeland maritime jurisdiction bill, which Bosphorus News reported was moving toward law as the Aegean dispute widened and is expected before parliament in October.
The exchange echoes an argument Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis made in June, when he said unilateral moves in the law of the sea cannot create legal facts, a position Athens is now applying to Türkiye's marine park decrees. Neither government has proposed a joint framework for resolving the underlying dispute, and Türkiye is not a party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that Greece cites.
Sources: Türkiye's Official Gazette (Resmi Gazete, No. 33342), Greek Foreign Ministry, Bosphorus News review and reporting.