Choosing the UN Security Council: The Greco-Turkish Dispute in the Aegean Sea

Abstract

The dispute between Greece and Turkey concerns the maritime zones of exclusive national control in the Aegean Sea. They were initially based on claims to the continental shelf, but flared with Greece’s claim to an extended territorial sea. This chapter demonstrates that forum selection is sometimes driven by rationales other than achieving a favorable decision. The Greek government turned to the UN Security Council mainly in order to place blame on Turkey in front of an international audience and to boost its domestic standing. The Aegean Sea is situated between the Greek east coast and the Turkish west coast, its northern shores border the continental coast of Greece, and the southern periphery is fringed by Greek islands loosely separating the Aegean from the Mediterranean. The dispute first emerged in the early 1970s and was driven mainly by the prospect of oil deposits in the seabed. It was rekindled when Greece ratified UNCLOS in 1995. It has evoked serious crises in 1976 and again in 1987. It also played a significant role in the sovereignty dispute over the Imia/Kardak islets, which pushed Greece and Turkey to the brink of war in early 1996. The prospect that the Aegean dispute could escalate into military conflict has been a central concern for international security. Since the 1970s, Turkey has threatened that if Greece should seek to control greater parts of the Aegean Sea, this would constitute grounds for war (Clogg 1991: 15).