BY TURGUT TARHANLI
RADIKAL- There is a longstanding disagreement between Ankara and Athens over the limits of Greece’s territorial waters. Greece adopted the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982, but Turkey refused to sign it, because the convention allows the extension of territorial water limits to 12 miles, which Greece from time to time claims it has the right to do.
Parliament Speaker Bulent Arinc recently made a proposal to lift the ‘casus belli’ [cause for war linked to the territorial water issue] declared years ago against Greece. Arinc’s proposal spurred a broad discussion.
Some of the most frequently asked questions are, ‘Can Turkey declare war on Greece in accordance with the casus belli decision?’ and ‘How can we defend our own rights in the Aegean against the Greeks if we lift the casus belli?’
First and foremost, casus belli doesn’t mean ‘all-out war’ on Greece. At any rate, it’s unlawful to resort to violence as a means of solving disputes between nations. We should take that into account while discussing the issue.
If anything, casus belli means that should Greece extend its territorial water limits to 12 miles, Turkey won’t recognize this. Turkish ships will follow their usual route, thus ‘trespassing’ the 12-mile limit. Unless Greece reacts with force, there will be no problem. But if it does, Turkey will have the right to retaliate accordingly. This is the worst-case scenario. But this would be possible only if all the bridges of dialogue and democracy between Turkey and Greece were destroyed.
Besides, the casus belli was just a medium used by the Parliament to draw the world’s attention to the issue. In 1997, however, Greece declared that it would avoid unilateral action on the issue, and Turkey announced that it wouldn’t adopt a violence-based policy. The last eight years in Turkish-Greek relations have served to prove that dialogue and compromise are far more effective at improving bilateral ties and solving disputes than military intervention, weapons and saber-rattling.