Venizelos: No ‘nervous actions without strategy’
As Greek-Turkish tension mounts, former deputy PM, who also headed foreign affairs and defense ministries, discusses past talks with Ankara
Evangelos Venizelos, a former deputy prime minister and minister for foreign affairs, reveals previously untold aspects in the history of exploratory talks between Greece and Turkey.
In an interview with Kathimerini on Sunday, Venizelos, a Socialist MP, offers his take on recent developments while expressing his opinion on what should be done with regard to the country’s disputes with Ankara.
Picking up the baton from the Papandreou government, what did the Samaras-Venizelos government establish and what did it deliver to the Tsipras government, with regard to the Greco-Turkish exploratory talks?
Since 2002, consecutive rounds of exploratory talks have been taking place, with a view to the delimitation of the continental shelf in the Aegean, while from time to time bilateral meetings were organized concerning the confidence-building measures (CBMs), mainly of aeronautical content. However, an agreement on the extent of Greek territorial waters in the Aegean has been the real subject of exploratory talks all these years. Neither the delimitation of the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), nor the region of the Eastern Mediterranean, where very important Greek islands are located, had been the subject of the 55 rounds that took place up until 2013.
When I took over the duties of deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs in June 2013, a discussion on dividing up territorial waters geographically into NE, NW, SE and SW Aegean had already been proposed. At that time, I gave written instructions that the exploratory talks should focus not on the territorial waters that are part of the territory and the definition of which constitutes an exercise of national sovereignty, which requires delimitation only when the distance to the opposite country is less than 24 nautical miles, but to the delimitation of the sea zones over which the coastal state does not exercise national sovereignty, but sovereign rights which presuppose delimitation with neighboring states.
My instructions to the Greek delegation, under the excellent Ambassador Pavlos Apostolidis, were that Greece should ask that the subject of the talks be the delimitation of not only the continental shelf, but also of the EEZ – not only in the Aegean, but also in the Eastern Mediterranean. For the first time, the EEZ issue and the Mediterranean issue were raised. This comprehensive approach safeguards all the sovereign rights under delimitation and takes into account the entirety of the Greek coastline and the Dodecanese, which is not divided between the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. This is particularly crucial for the island group of Kastellorizo.
I also gave the instruction to discuss the rule of international law which would act as a reference rule, as Turkey is not part of the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), but the convention reflects customary law. I raised the same issues with my Turkish counterparts, initially Mr Ahmet Davutoglu and then Mr Mevlut Cavusoglu.
What was the Turkish reaction?
The Turkish reaction was that they would agree to discuss the delimitation of not only the continental shelf, but also the EEZ, both in the Aegean and in the Eastern Mediterranean, but first in the Aegean and then in the Mediterranean. Our position was the simultaneous discussion of both.
Now I see that they have reversed the order, focusing on the Mediterranean, where more countries are involved. The Turkish side has since accepted the relevant case law of the international courts and arbitration tribunals as a reference rule. The Turks often repeat that in their view the principle of equity applies and that the islands on the “wrong side” (!) do not have a continental shelf and EEZ, but only territorial waters. However, in writing to the UN, they refer to the relevant international case law which applies a three-phase judicial reasoning, beginning with equidistance/median line and the full effect of the islands before checking the “relevant circumstances” and before applying the socalled proportionality test.
At the same time, we had worked on detailed proposals for aeronautical CBMs, in consultation with Mr Antonis Samaras and Mr Dimitris Avramopoulos and I had given detailed instructions on them. I would like to remind you that at that time the conditions for the resumption of bicommunal talks in Cyprus – which ended as they did in 2017 – had been established.
All these were part of a comprehensive strategy for the delimitation of maritime zones, which also included intensifying negotiations with Italy on the conversion of the 1977 agreement into an EEZ delimitation agreement, the resumption of contacts with Albania on the ratification of the 2009 agreement with an updated preamble and technical geographical location rechecking – in this context an agreement was signed with Albania on the use of the Greek place names (toponyms) by a declaration of rejection of any kind of irredentism – and the formation, after the fall of President Mohamed Morsi, of the new framework of bilateral Greek-Egyptian relations, focusing on the delimitation of the maritime zones and the tripartite cooperation with the participation of Cyprus.
Most importantly, in continuation of Law 4001/2011 and in collaboration with Yannis Maniatis, we located the “blocks” south of Crete and signed the first concession contracts. This is the most concrete and important thing that has been done by Greece within the outer limits of the continental shelf and its EEZ.
What were the red lines on either side? It is said that one of the main disagreements was the so-called demilitarization of the islands and the sovereignty over islets which are not explicitly mentioned in international treaties. Did Turkey want these issues to be included in the international dispute “package,” while Greece insisted that they are not part of the negotiation process?
Greece was only discussing the delimitation of maritime zones as required by international law, since without a final delimitation with adjacent or opposite countries, these sovereign rights cannot be fully exercised. Neither the “gray areas,” nor the “demilitarization” of the Greek islands were the subject of exploratory talks and meetings for the CBMs. Nor was such a political issue raised toward me at a political level by the Turkish side.
In addition, in 2010, when I was minister of national defense, Lemnos was made part of the European Union military planning. but also of NATO’s planning for military operations in Libya, because the famous “NATO issues” with Lemnos concern exercises in peacetime and not actual military operations.
The main thing is that a few days before the January 2015 elections and my departure from the Foreign Ministry, I changed – in consultation with the opposition at the time – the statements of our country regarding the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice in The Hague and the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea ( ITLOS) to exclude issues of national sovereignty such as “gray zones” and “demilitarization,” while the delimitation of the continental shelf and the EEZ would require a special agreement on the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice.
‘Greece should propose to all the countries of the East Med that do not have their territorial waters at 12 nm to extend their territorial sea’