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US: Greek island sovereignty indisputable

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Βασίλης Διαμαντάκος 12.02.2022 | 16:12 ΧΡΟΝΟΣ ΑΝΑΓΝΩΣΗΣ 3 '

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Pagenews.gr / English Edition / US: Greek island sovereignty indisputable

Statement made a day after Turkish FM questioned their ownership, saying they must be demilitarized.

The US official representative said that, ‘The sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected and protected. Greece’s sovereignty over these islands is indisputable.’

Amidst Ankara’s recent, persistent demands that Greece’s Eastern Aegean islands be demilitarised, a US State Department official has told Hellas Journal that Greece’s sovereignty over the islands is not in question.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s comment

Asked to comment on Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu’s declaration yesterday that if Greece does no demilitarise its islands then sovereignty over them will be placed in question, the US official said that, “The sovereignty and territorial integrity of all countries must be respected and protected. Greece’s sovereignty over these islands is indisputable.”

Cavusoglu had said that, “We have sent two letters to the UN because Greece is violating the demilitarised status of the islands. These islands were ceded to Greece under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne and the [1947] Treaty of Paris, on condition that they be demilitarised. However, Greece began to violate that status in the 1960s.”

“In the letter we wrote, we noted that Greece is violating the terms of the treaties. These islands were ceded under certain conditions, and if Greece does not change its stance, then sovereignty over these islands is questionable, because the terms are being violated” said the Turkish foreign minister.

“If necessary, we shall issue our final warnings and thereafter the discussion begins,” he declared.

The Treaty of Lausanne

The Treaty of Lausanne was signed in 1923 by France, the UK, Italy, Japan, Greece, Romania, Turkey and the then Kingdom of Yugoslavia.

The 1947 Treaty of Paris, which, among other things, decided to ratify the transfer of the Dodecanese from Italy to Greece, was signed by the Soviet Union (USSR), the UK, the US, China, France, Australia, Belgium, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Belarus, Brazil, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Ethiopia, India, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine, South Africa and Yugoslavia.

In the event that Turkey chooses the path of internationalization, it will involve the NATO member-states and Germany, which was absent from both tables where the Lausanne and Paris were inked.

Article 15 of the Lausanne Treaty ratifies the transfer of sovereignty of the islands to Greece. Ankara cannot invoke the Treaty of Paris of 1947 because it was not a party to it. As for the the Dodecanese islands, it had already given up any claim at Lausanne.

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