Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Alexandros Yennimatas’s response to a journalist’s question on yesterday's statement from the Spokesperson for Turkish Foreign Ministry regarding Turkey-Libya

Turkey’s persistence in attempting to make disappear the maritime zones of islands – such as Crete, Rhodes, Karpathos, Kastelorizo – or even of entire island states, through ploys such as invalid bilateral memoranda that, all of a sudden, are magically transformed into agreements, or through selectively invoking court rulings or articles of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) – to which nevertheless it refuses to become party – produces no international legal effect.

Nor, of course, can it impinge on the sovereign rights of our islands which are solidly enshrined in international law and, more specifically, in the International Law of the Sea.

Turkey’s stated readiness for negotiations, as provided for by the Law of the Sea, for the delimitation of maritime zones between states is positive.

Yet, negotiations can take place only within the framework of international legality; statements of good intentions cannot be accompanied by daily transgression in the form of statements and actions.

Rather than talking about islands lying on the “wrong side of the median line,” we call on Turkey to ask itself whether it wants to be on the wrong side of the Law.