The South Cyclades Park and Greek sovereignty in the Aegean

Kyriakos Mitsotakis curtailed a previously announced marine protected area, bending to Turkey’s view of maritime law

Greek premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis (L) and European Council president Antonio Costa at the Our Oceans Conference in Nice on June 9 (Photo courtesy Prime Minister’s Office)

On June 9, Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told the Our Oceans Conference in Nice that he would submit a bill creating Greece’s South Cyclades marine protected area in June.

“Before the end of this month, we will start the legal process to create two new national marine parks, one in the Ionian Sea and another in the Southern Cyclades in the Aegean Sea, as a first phase with more to come,” he said.

A year ago, Mitsotakis had announced the creation of the Ionian and South Aegean marine protected area, stretching to the Greek island of Nisyros off the Turkish coast. Turkey doesn’t dispute Greek sovereignty over Nisyros, at least not yet, but it does dispute the ownership of the easternmost islets of the South Aegean Park, a policy it launched in 1996 by disputing the ownership of the Imia islets. The South Cyclades park will extend no further east than the island of Amorgos.

“Let us not see the environment used as a convenient cover behind which to try and hide dubious things,” Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan had said shortly after the parks were announced in 2024, adding that “Turkey will not accept de facto situations in this geography.”