Turkey declares two marine national parks in the Aegean; Greek press reads sovereignty message in the move

By presidential decree, Turkey designated two strategically significant areas in the Aegean Sea as Marine National Parks. The Northern Aegean Marine National Park extends from the waters off Çanakkale and Gökçeada to the line between Greece's Lemnos and Samothrace islands. The Fethiye-Kaş Marine National Park unites the Muğla-Antalya maritime borders and extends to the waters between Rhodes and Meis.

Prominent Greek media outlet To Vima interpreted the decision as Ankara's diplomatic response to Athens' planned marine parks in the Southern Aegean and its Marine Spatial Planning measures. Turkey is positioning this environment-focused status on the same footing as its thesis that Greek islands hold no sovereignty rights beyond 6 nautical miles and that the continental shelf should be demarcated based on the mainland coastlines of both countries.

The Northern Aegean region continues to be a focal point of the jurisdictional dispute that began in 1973 with the discovery of hydrocarbon deposits off Thasos Island and the granting of exploration licences to TPAO. On the Eastern Mediterranean front, Turkey's Blue Homeland doctrine — as framed by the 2019 Maritime Jurisdiction Agreement signed with Libya — forms the determining framework.

Turkey had previously legitimised exploration activities in the Eastern Mediterranean by interweaving environmental and sovereignty rhetoric; these two parks are read as a transposition of the same approach to the Aegean.