Greece Creates Marine Parks That May Revive Turkey Tensions | Today News

(Bloomberg) — Greece will establish two national marine parks in an effort to protect ocean wildlife, a move that could potentially strain ties with neighboring Turkey. 

The parks will be located in the Ionian Sea and in the Southern Cyclades, an island group in the Aegean Sea, west and east of the mainland, respectively. The Greek government’s pledge to create a marine park in the Aegean Sea drew pushback from Turkey last year. The two countries have historically been at odds over sea borders and economic rights in parts of the eastern Mediterranean.

“These parks will be among the largest marine protected areas in the entire Mediterranean,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Monday in a statement. They will allow the country to meet its target of “protecting 30% of its territorial waters” by 2030, ahead of schedule, the premier added. 

The establishment of the two marine parks is meant to preserve ecosystems, restore balance and set a new standard for marine conservation, Mitsotakis said. 

“Unilateral actions should be avoided in enclosed or semi-enclosed seas such as the Aegean and Mediterranean,” Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement in response, adding that Ankara would announce its own projects “aimed at protecting the environment in marine areas” in the coming days.

The area in the Aegean Sea hosts threatened wildlife plants and species and will cover almost 9,500 square kilometers. The park in the Ionian Sea will extend over 18,000 square kilometers and will include locations used by endangered animals like certain sea turtles. 

“They will be vast sanctuaries for life beneath the waves,” Mitsotakis said, adding that “most importantly, inside these marine zones the hugely damaging practice of bottom trawling will be banned.” 

(Adds Turkish statement in fifth paragraph.)

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