Athens hopes the new government that is to form formed in Libya will “free itself” from the Turkey-Libya memorandum, Greece’s Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said Monday.
During a joint press conference with his Libyan counterpart Najla El Mangoush in Athens, Dendias described the memorandum as “invalid, non-existent and illegal.”
In November 2019, Turkey and Libya signed a maritime delimitation deal that provided a legal framework to prevent any fait accompli by regional states.
In response, Greece and Egypt signed an agreement in 2020, designating an exclusive economic zone in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Turkey has said it infringes on its continental shelf and overlaps with the maritime zones it agreed with Libya.
Turkey is one of only 15 countries of 193 United Nations member states that have not signed UNCLOS because it is in line with Greece’s maritime rights that Ankara continually challenges.
Although the U.S. is also one of these 15 countries, in which many are landlocked countries, that has not signed UNCLOS, it does accept it as customary law, something Turkey does not.
By rejecting UNCLOS and acting unilaterally, Turkey is attempting to redraw the map of the East Mediterranean without any consideration for Greece’s maritime sovereign rights.
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