On
26th December 1995
, a Turkish cargo ship ran aground on one of the islets of Imia and its captain initially refused the assistance offered by the Greek authorities, maintaining that he was within Turkish territorial waters. He ultimately accepted being towed to
Turkey
by a Greek tugboat.
On 27th January 1996, some journalists from the Turkish daily Hurriyet lowered the Greek flag and raised the Turkish one on the Imia islets. The following day the Greek Navy lowered the Turkish flag and hoisted the Greek one. Turkish warships then proceeded to the area under the observation of Greek ships. Turkish warships violated Greek territorial waters, whilst Greek airspace was violated by Turkish fighter planes. The Turkish provocation culminated in the landing of Turkish troops on the second islet, in other words militarily occupying part of Greek territory. Several days later the crisis was defused with the withdrawal of both forces from the area and a return to the former situation.
The Turkish Foreign Ministry in verbal notes stresses Turkish sovereignty over the Imia islets and demands- in practical application of the grey zone theory- wholesale negotiations on islands, islets and atolls in the Aegean, maintaining that their status is legally undetermined.
The legal status of the islands and islets of the Aegean is however crystal clear. Greek sovereignty over the Imia islets is clearly stipulated by international conventions, i.e. the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, the 1947 Paris Treaty and the 1923 Italo-Turkish Agreements.
More specifically:
-On the basis of the Lausanne Treaty (Article 15) the Imia islets along with the Dodecanese islands in their entirety were given to Italy. According to Articles 12 to 16 it is apparent that Turkey ceded all sovereign rights over all the islands lying more than 3 miles off the Asiatic coast, apart from the Imvros, Tenedos and Rabbit islands. Consequently, she also ceded all sovereign rights over the Imia islets which lie 3.7 miles off the Turkish coast. The Treaty of Lausanne is abundantly clear: islands and islets lying within three miles of the Turkish coast shall remain Turkish unless otherwise expressly stipulated by the Treaty itself. Conversely, Turkey renounces all sovereign or other rights over the islands and islets lying beyond this area (again unless otherwise expressly stipulated, as is the case with Imvros, Tenedos and Rabbit islands). Demarcation is thus clear-cut, which is why there is no need to refer by name to all the islands and islets in the Aegean.
- The Italo-Turkish Agreements of January 1932 and the additional protocol of 28.12.1932, on the basis of which the territorial waters of the two countries between the coast of Asia Minor and the Dodecanese islands were defined. It should be stressed that the Imia islets were ceded to Italy by the Treaty of Lausanne, which is easily confirmed by the fact that in Point 30 of the additional Protocol which was signed on 28.12.1932 they are referred to as one of the points under Italian sovereignty from which the median line dividing the territorial waters between Italy and Turkey shall be calculated.
-Under the 1947 Paris Peace Treaty (Article 14), sovereignty of the Dodecanese including the Imia islets was ceded by Italy to Greece. Greece thus succeeded Italy as sovereign state over the Dodecanese.
The above legal argument is supported in practice by uninterrupted and peaceful Greek sovereignty over the Imia islets since 1947, which was never contested by Turkey until the 1995-6 crisis.