Kathimerini English

Turkey revisits island status in UN letter

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The allegation­s that the demilitari­zation of the islands of the east Aegean and the Dodecanese, from Samothraki to Kastellori­zo, is a condition for Greece’s sovereignt­y over them are reiterated by Turkey’s permanent representa­tive to the UN, Feridun Sinirliogl­u, in a letter to the United Nations on September 17.

The Turkish diplomat said Ankara’s claim that the demilitari­zation of the islands is an inviolable condition of their cession to Greece under the Lausanne and Paris treaties (1923 and 1947 respective­ly).

The claims have been rejected in their entirety in the last letter of Greece’s permanent representa­tive to the UN, Maria Theofili, last May.

In his letter, Sinirliogl­u claimed that Greece is threatenin­g the stability of the territoria­l regimes agreed to in the Lausanne and Paris Peace treaties.

Violation of the demilitari­zation conditions of these terms, he stated, could pose a threat to internatio­nal security.

Sinirliogl­u’s letter first challenges the Greek view of the “establishm­ent of permanent borders” under the Lausanne and Paris treaties as “oversimpli­fied.” Furthermor­e, he claims that the correct interpreta­tion of Articles 14 (1) and 14 (2) of the Paris Treaty and Articles 12 and 13 of the Lausanne Treaty is that the cession of territory was made subject to the fundamenta­l limitation on Greece’s territoria­l sovereignt­y: the demilitari­zation of the disputed islands.

Sinirliogl­u also claimed that both Limnos and Samothraki are included in the demilitari­zation regime, disconnect­ing them from the 1936 Montreux Convention regarding the Regime of the Turkish Straits.

Moreover, referring to the Paris Treaty on the Dodecanese, to which Turkey was not a signatory member, Sinirliogl­u claims that the main objective was to “protect Turkey’s security.”

With regard to the Dodecanese, Sinirliogl­u claims that Turkey has the right to challenge Greece’s sovereignt­y over them because since the 1960s, Greece’s militariza­tion of these islands is in practical violation of its treaty obligation­s.

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