New Turkish provocations with “Blue Homeland” and alleged maps

A bill that will “regulate Turkey’s maritime jurisdiction zones” in its entirety” Turkey, according to reports by Bloomberg and the Milliyet newspaper.

In 2006, Jem Gurdéniz, then director of Policy Planning at the headquarters of the Turkish Navy, coined the term “Blue Homeland” (Mavi Vatan). As Admiral (ret.) explained, years later (newspaper “To Vima”, 9-6-2020), it was a doctrine withtwo pillars: on the one hand the suggestion of Turkish areas ofmaritime jurisdiction (national sovereignty, spatial waters, continental shelf, EEZ) and on the other hand the creation of a maritime worldview for Ankara.

The revisionist-expansionist doctrine, under which the neighbouring country claims 462,000 square kilometres of maritime jurisdiction in the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean, Cyprus and the Black Sea, became state policy in October 2018. Then, speaking to Anadolu, Turkish Defense Minister, Houloussi Akar, officially unveiled the Map of the “Blue Homeland”.

Thirteen months later, in November 2019, the implementation of the doctrine was launched, following the “maritime jurisdictions” memorandum of understanding signed by Ankara with the government of Tripoli (one of two in Libya), known as the Turkish-Libyan memorandum.

Several years before it rolled out its maritime doctrine, the Turkish side attempted to predict Greece’s actions. In June 1995, a week after the Greek parliament ratified the Law of the Sea Convention (UNCLOS), the Turkish National Assembly gave the green light to the Turkish government to consider a cause of war the extension of Greek territorial waters in the Aegean beyond six nautical miles.

A bill that would see Ankara claim maritime jurisdiction “in contested areas of the Aegean and Mediterranean” was cited by Bloomberg, but noted that doing so “risks increasing tensions in a region with potential gas deposits.”

Turkish media, both pro-government and opposition, claimed that this is a decision that, among other things, attempts to give Ankara a negotiating advantage in possible delimitations with neighboring countries and therefore the law, once passed, will be submitted to the UN, while the possibility of a Greek reaction was not omitted.

So far the bill has not been submitted to the Turkish parliament, and it is worth noting that Turkey is one of the countries that have not ratified UNCLOS (others are the US, Israel, etc.).

Athens on alert

Beyond the timing of the Turkish decision, the major question for Athens is whether this action will be accompanied by greater scaling on the ground by Ankara. Something that has been recorded increasingly lately (violations, harassment of a ship carrying out work south of Crete, raising alleged issues about the minority, direct threats, etc.).

In any case, Greece has taken dynamic actions on its part in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean chessboard. In April 2025, Athens announced its Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) and two months later it designated two marine parks: one in the Ionian Sea and one in the South Aegean (Southern Cyclades).

Subsequently, last October, agreements for exploration and exploitation in marine plots south of the Peloponnese and Crete were signed, a joint venture between Chevron and Helleniq Energy. In particular, the exploration in the sea blocks south of Crete constitutes, among other things, recognition of the Greek EEZ and the cancellation in substance of the Turcovician turkish treaty. While the maritime zone delimitations with Italy and Egypt