Islands have a full right to continental shelf

Submitted by Ianus (Poland), Feb 24, 2012 at 08:18

Mozere wrote :

> Kastelorizo or to give it its proper name,Meis, is a piece of rock sticking out of the anatolian continental shelf and as such Turkey is perfectly entitled to claim the surrounding waters as its EEZ . Its only right is to have its internationally recognised territorial waters.<

It's interesting that the country that has such a consistent record of breaking international law and disregarding international obligations it solemnly assumes now seeks to use international law to justify its illegal and aggressive claims, isn't it ?

If as you say Turkey is so eager to have its just claims based on the argument of the continental shelf legalized, then why did Turkey repeatedly refuse to submit its very claims to the International Court of Justice for arbitration as Greece and other countries had asked her to do ?

Let me remind you that the question of the delimitation of the Continental Shelf arose only before Turkey's war on Cyprus, i.e. as late as November 1973 when the Turkish government out of a sudden published a map that showed Greek areas in the Aegean within Turkish jurisdiction and on the basis of this "map" it issued a license for the Turkish Petroleum Company to do research activities there. This was a clear and premeditated break of Article 1 and 2 of of the 1958 Convention on the Continental Shelf. But at that time as now the Turks didn't care much about international conventions and laws when they are against their arbitrary claims. So Turkish encroachments continued and intensified in 1974 and in 1976 and the Turks ignored the Greek invitation to have their provocative actions and claims assessed and judged by the International Court of Justice the same year. The reason why Turkey refused to go to the International Court of Justice is clear enough. Turkey's aggressive claims have a political and not legal nature.They aim at the capture of the whole Aegean Continental Shelf whereas the simple fact that under International Law islands have also a full right to their continental shelf makes these importunate Turkish political claims null and void.

So your claim that Megiste (pronounced "meystee")- to give the island its official and ancient name - is not just unsubstantiated but on the contrary it unwittingly entails the potent counterargument that the island itself does in fact have its own legal claims to the Anatolian Continental Shelf !

> It is,under international law,a de-militarised island as such under an obligation not to pose a military threat to Turkey.If this is not honoured Turkey then can quite legally take counter measures.<

And the "counter measures" you refer to do include first of all its full militarization through Turkey, don't they, the same way Turkey did occupy and hypermilitarize neutral Cyprus in 1974 (Northern Cyprus is one of the most militarized regions in the world) and tried to do the same with Imia in 1995-1996 despite all stipulations of international law ? At that time the Turkish militarists, fully disregarding international law as embodied in Article 12 of the Treaty of Lausanne which stipuilates "Except where a provision to the contrary is contained in the present Treaty, the islands situated at less than three miles from the Asiatic coast remain under Turkish sovereignty", sent military helicopters and armed commandos to try to capture Imia. What is more, prime minister Tansu Ciller discovered soon "3000 islands" claimed by Turkey as its own territory in the Aegean. True, afterwards some Turkish militarists reduced the number to the "humble" 100 !

Note also that the next article (13) of the said Treaty states "...the Turkish Government will forbid their military aircraft to fly over the said islands". Nowadays Turkish aircraft violate Greek air space as a matter of routine. When B. Netanyahu was visiting Greece, Turkey "celebrated" the event by sending 20 Turkish jets to violate the Greek air space. In 2000 there were 440 forays of Turkish aircraft into Greek national airspace. Next year they more than doubled reaching 920 incidents. In 2002 the Turkish militarists carried out 3 000 violations. But the Turks don't just overfly air space of a sovereign country. "Turkish aircraft have begun harassing routine transport and maritime patrol aircraft. At times the Turks selectively harass aircraft carrying ministers and government officials and their retinues to functions in the Aegean. One bizarre aspect of these tactics has been the harassment of third-country aircraft, among them US and Israeli transport and patrol aircraft. On one occasion last year, French aircraft training with the Hellenic Airforce in Greece, were also provoked much to the consternation of the allied pilots."

And this dance macabre continues year in year out , month in month out. And despite all of that you bring up here alleged Turkish bona fide claims and say (to me absolutely sarcastically and cynically) "Let Greece and Turkey amicably and fairly share the riches of the Mediterranean" which sounds like an SS man telling a Jew to "amicably and fairly share the latter's riches" or else ... !

> The greek government is right in taking non inflammatory stand to the chagrin of professional turk bashers, long may it continue.<

The longer this unilateral betrayal and humiliation continues, the longer Turkish provocations and bullying are tolerated, the more aggressive and arrogant the Turkish claims and behavior become. Shooting down any single Turkish aircraft that dares violate Greek air space should be a good lesson for the Turkish jihadists to learn, to start with. The next one should be the reminder of what International law says about the Turkish jihadists' claims to foreign territory and property.

> Before some people moan about turkish bellicosity may I refer to 70s cold wars over EEZ between the eminently civilised and christian nations of Britain and Iceland,<

And how many Icelanders did the British kill and maim in their 1000-year long jihad against Iceland , its culture, territory and religion ? How many Icelandic churches were desecrated, levelled to the ground by British jihadist hordes? Was Hallgrímskirkj , the main Cathedral of Reykjavik, also changed into a mosque after the massacre of Reykjavik's population like in the case of its wretched Byzantine counterpart? How many Icelanders were kidnapped to become British janissaries, sold on the British slave markets never to see their beautiful homeland again? Did the British Kemalists also perpetrate an Icelandic genocide with 1 mln Icelanders massacred, burnt alive, skinned, decapitated and 1,5 mln more expelled from their homeland and was the entire crime denied afterwards and its very mention made punishable with 3-4 years' imprisonment ?

The "eminently Christian nations" solve their problems the way the eminently Moslem Turks have no clue about. History and civilization make all the difference, so let's not mix up both and let's not consider bloody Turkish barbarity on a par with civilization.

> and also can anybody enlighten me on the Canadian EEZ with reference to St.Pierre and Miquelon islands.<

I doubt you want to be enlightened by anybody on anything. No Turk can in principle be so honest as to face the truth and dismiss standard Turkish lies he is taught to spread. Islam and truth are mutually exclusive.

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