Post by Georgios on Nov 7, 2012 20:26:29 GMT 10
Castellorizo's Exclusive Economic Zone is threaten by Turkey.For over three decades, Turkish threats have halted any Greek exploration of the Aegean, due to Ankara’s illegal territorial claims and its refusal (despite EU urgings) to adopt the 1982 UN law of the sea convention, which defines EEZ rights and recognises that islands have a continental shelf.
The Turkish exploration vessels Hora (1975), Sismik (1987) and Piri Reis (which last July sailed to Kastellorizo with Turks and Canadians) all entered Greek waters and EEZ areas for seismic research for hydrocarbons, in moves that produced intense bilateral tensions. Andreas Papandreou as opposition leader publicly called for the sinking of the Hora, and when he was prime minister the two countries came closer to war than during the 1996 Imia crisis, when the Sismik entered Greek waters.
The tiny, inhabited Greek island of Kastellorizo is the geographic point that links the Greek and Cyprus EEZs, offering Greece access to the potentially huge natural gas deposits where they overlap. That is precisely the reason that Ankara has reportedly refused to include the island in ongoing talks with Greece on the delimitation of the continental shelf.
Please sing the petition :
By these signatures of the Greek people, we want to show to all political institutions and especially to the Hellenic Parliament, where the bill of the Law on the Greek EEZ will be voted, that each one of us requests the implementation of the Sea Law in our country, so that we can make value of our hydrocarbons which exist in the Greek deposits, in order to efficiently and strategically exit the economic crisis by our own forces and in the decency which characterizes us.
www.ipetitions.com/petition/elliniki_aoz/
The Turkish exploration vessels Hora (1975), Sismik (1987) and Piri Reis (which last July sailed to Kastellorizo with Turks and Canadians) all entered Greek waters and EEZ areas for seismic research for hydrocarbons, in moves that produced intense bilateral tensions. Andreas Papandreou as opposition leader publicly called for the sinking of the Hora, and when he was prime minister the two countries came closer to war than during the 1996 Imia crisis, when the Sismik entered Greek waters.
The tiny, inhabited Greek island of Kastellorizo is the geographic point that links the Greek and Cyprus EEZs, offering Greece access to the potentially huge natural gas deposits where they overlap. That is precisely the reason that Ankara has reportedly refused to include the island in ongoing talks with Greece on the delimitation of the continental shelf.
Please sing the petition :
By these signatures of the Greek people, we want to show to all political institutions and especially to the Hellenic Parliament, where the bill of the Law on the Greek EEZ will be voted, that each one of us requests the implementation of the Sea Law in our country, so that we can make value of our hydrocarbons which exist in the Greek deposits, in order to efficiently and strategically exit the economic crisis by our own forces and in the decency which characterizes us.
www.ipetitions.com/petition/elliniki_aoz/