Fisheries law

The presidential decree on the closing of bays and drawing of straight baselines in the maritime area of the Ionian and the Ionian islands up to Cape Tainaro in the Peloponnese entered into force through its publication in the government gazette Sunday.

The move is a necessary step in the process of extending Greece's western territorial waters.

The United Kingdom has announced the extension of sanctions on persons involved in illegal drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean, namely in Cyprus, beyond December 31, when the transitional period for the UK's formal exit from the European Union expires.

Turkey is one of six countries leading the fishing sector in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean out of the 24 member countries of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), according to a two-year report released on Dec. 14.

The Croatian government on Monday decided to declare an exclusive economic zone, EEZ, in the Adriatic Sea. Parliament will hold an extraordinary session this week to confirm the decision.

A crucial and recurring question posed with every Greek-Turkish crisis is: How will Greece manage to contain Ankara's aggression? Athens must certainly not give in to the provocations. At the same time, it must safeguard its sovereign rights.

Israel has expressed its solidarity with Greece amid a sharp increase in tensions with Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean region.

"Israel is cautiously monitoring the increase in tension in the Eastern Mediterranean," the country's embassy in Athens said in a statement posted on Twitter on Wednesday morning.

Ankara has used contradictory language over the last 24 hours regarding the Greece-Italy agreement for the delimitation of the countries' maritime zones in the Ionian Sea. 

The Greek government is scurrying to close an EEZ delimitation deals with Egypt and Albania after having cut a deal with Italy, thus resolving a deadlock of over four decades.

Athens has accused Ankara of adopting a "selective interpretation" of international law after the country's foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu, said that an agreement between Greece and Italy on maritime boundaries had confirmed the validity of Turkey's claims regarding maritime accords.

The Greece-Italy agreement delimiting the two countries' Exclusive Economic Zones is undoubtedly a milestone in Greek foreign policy.

The reason is that it not only resolves an issue that has festered for 43 years but also because it sends a resounding message to Ankara that Greece will not only invoke international law but is also prepared and determined to enforce it.