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The "Blue Homeland", the attempt to usurp Greek sovereignty and the response to it.

 By Ioannis Ath. Baltzoi*

The criticism that Erdogan has recently received from the opposition and nationalist circles for reducing the geopolitical and operational dynamics of the illegal doctrine-narrative of the "Blue Homeland", has pushed him to take decisions and measures that could potentially be dangerous and decisive for the security architecture in the Aegean region.

Thus, suddenly, Turkey's organized plan was presented, with coordination and coaxing of nationalist circles and the willing and controlled media, the intention of the Erdogan government to submit a bill in June, which attempts to give legal substance to the doctrine of the "Blue Homeland", to make the Aegean Sea a special operational regime, where each activity will require its own permit. The bill is not a fragmentary political move, but a methodical and well-planned aggressive policy, aimed at the literal seizure of a maritime area, which belongs to others and is a global paradox. This intention of Erdogan is in practice an aggressive action, an asymmetric hybrid war, which requires an immediate and harsh reaction, because if it goes like this, then Greece will have suffered a decisive and fatal defeat, a situation from which there will be no return.

The “Blue Homeland” is not a naval doctrine, but an architecture of control. Ankara presents the “special status maritime zone” as supposedly International Law. However, it is the “Perimeter Law”, an illegal Turkish cartography that turns into administrative power in the maritime areas around it and this power into control and orders extending to the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean. A state outside the UNCLOS (The Convention on the Law of the Sea) that does not accept it has no right to arbitrarily legislate for maritime zones. Turkey cannot reject the Law of the Sea on the one hand and then impose a maritime regime constructed by itself on Europe, NATO and its neighbors.

The Aegean is not a Turkish administrative area, the Eastern Mediterranean is not its annex. It seems that our tolerance of the Turkish-Libyan memorandum has created in Turkey the illusion that illegality has no cost. Turkey understood that with military coercion, it can impose an illegal cartography and survive. Now, with this mapped fantasy, it wants to control, seize and finally seize and govern. And here comes the responsibilities of the Greek governments, which have thus "trained" Turkey, through inaction and silence, to behave as a predator. And we are referring to Greece, because the Europe of solidarity and support for the rights of an EU member state. does not react, since it finds that the state - victim of Turkey does not react strongly, does not raise objections, does not invoke the only right of the weak to have their rights heard and to force the E.U. to act, which is the "right of veto", commonly known as Veto, on programs related to Turkey. Turkey should find a cost in many areas, in the legal, NATO, diplomatic, economic, operational sectors in order to stop its arbitrary and dangerous revisionism.

It should, despite the cheerful arguments of the "domestic Turkish-minded and conscientious Neneks", react now before the Turkish abortion is voted on, which threatens the integrity of our homeland. The argument to first see and then react is an attitude of submission and surrender. Greece must react now and indeed in a strong tone and with actions on the ground. First, it must let it be understood that it is ready to exercise its inalienable right that it is ready to increase its territorial waters from 6 to 12 nautical miles. It already has the maps ready with the baselines on our coasts and the closure of the bays up to 24 nautical miles, and on the day that Turkey brings the "blue homeland implementation bill" for vote, Greece votes to declare the expansion of our territorial waters to 12 nautical miles and declares an EEZ with its counterpart country, as it has every right to.

At the same time, it should also take the following actions:

A. Internationalization of Turkey's revisionist intention, as the Turkish media "politely and in detail" informed us, with the EU, NATO and the UN Security Council informed about Turkey's intentions, informing that Greece will exercise its right of veto on anything related to Turkey.

B. Deconstructing Turkish arguments about the gray zones and the 152 islands whose ownership it disputes and claimed by Turkey and let us refer to article 12 and 16 of the Treaty of Lausanne, where Turkey's rights in the maritime zones in the Aegean are 3 miles from its coasts and the rest west of the 3 miles belongs to Greece and Turkey has signed it. Also, regarding the militarization of the islands, let us constantly respond with article 51 of the UN Charter:

«Article 51. Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defense if a Member of the United Nations is the object of an armed attack, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security.»

C. Maintaining a strong deterrent presence in the Aegean, with reference to the defense of our national sovereign rights by all lawful means, not excluding the use of military force when they are violated.

D. Formulation, with the consensus of all political formations in the country, of a stable national strategy with absolute consistency and continuity in any government.

We should all understand that we are now in a critical period, when any retreat or even minimal concession of our sovereign rights, for the sake of peace in the region, as the slogan of the domestic "Turkish lobby" has reduced to a primary dilemma of the nation's survival, "what do you want, should we go to war?" This Law, if passed without our catalytic reactions and actions, will be the beginning of national concessions and the reduction of national sovereignty and the reduction of national space that will continue in the future with the voracious beast that borders us becoming increasingly demanding, assertive and revisionist, until the realization of its purpose, the creation of Greece as a vassal state, under the control and jurisdiction of Turkey for everything that happens in the Aegean, with the ultimate goal of becoming a modern "Vilayet" of the new Turkish neo-Ottoman hegemony envisioned by Turkish nationalists in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Aegean.

And some cowards will mutter the Casus Belli out of fear, not thinking that the Armed Forces of our homeland, which are maintained by the blood of the Greek people, are not intended for parades, but for maintaining the defense and security of the homeland. To them, let us respond with the words of the great general of the Struggle, Theodoros Kolokotronis: "Fire and Axe to the Pilgrims."

*Ioannis Ath. Baltzoi is an Antgos (n.a.) with M.Scin Geopolitics from the University of Athens, president of ELISME.