“The effort to institutionalize the ‘Blue Homeland’ doctrine is not merely a Greek–Turkish issue. It is linked to the broader way in which Turkey perceives its role in the region. From the Black Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean, it is attempting to project itself as a power that controls maritime zones, sea lanes, energy fields, and critical infrastructure.”
Such assessments accompany reports that the Turkish government is preparing to introduce a bill that would formally “enshrine” its territorial claims stretching from the Black Sea to the Eastern Mediterranean. According to these reports, the bill will encompass everything: from the “grey zones” in the Aegean and challenges to Greek sovereignty over islands, to the EEZ and the delimitation of territorial waters.
The Turkish bourgeoisie is effectively consolidating into a single law the unacceptable demands it is advancing in the wide-raging negotiations with the Greek side.
Both the current and previous governments stand exposed for the complacency and falsehoods they have promoted over the years: namely, that the “allies” —the US, NATO, and the EU— guarantee sovereign rights; that the country’s deep involvement in Euro-Atlantic plans and rivalries acts as a deterrent to Turkey; and that, within the framework of the NATO “roadmap,” the only issue under negotiation concerns the delimitation of the continental shelf and the EEZ.
A glance at the map reveals the broader picture behind the developments and plans accelerated by the so-called “Blue Homeland” bill. In the Black Sea, the NATO–Russia military confrontation continues to intensify. In the South Caucasus, new trade corridors are being carved out in an effort to encircle Russia. Iran remains in the crosshairs of the US and Israel. In Iraq and Syria, Turkey has launched military invasions, maintains bases, or occupies territories under the pretext of countering the Kurds.
Turkey’s entire land border lies adjacent to conflicts over the redistribution of trade and energy routes, markets, and spheres of influence. Amid the minefield of rivalries, the Turkish bourgeoisie seeks to strengthen and expand its regional role.
A central component in this plan is the creation of a new reality along its maritime borders, given the strategic importance of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean in the redrawing of the global energy and trade map.
That is the purpose of the “Blue Homeland” bill: to create faits accomplis in pursuit of greater more vital space, at the expense of Greek sovereign rights. At the same time, it seeks to constrain the vital space claimed by the Greek bourgeoisie, by upgrading relations with Israel and other countries in the region, securing a hub role in Euro-Atlantic plans for the EU’s energy supply through interconnection projects, and actively participating in at least seven military missions on NATO’s southeastern flank, as the Minister of Defence recently boasted.
These developments leave no room for complacency. The escalation of imperialist conflicts and the country’s entanglement in them —for which the government and all political parties bear responsibility— is the driving force behind the dangers facing sovereign rights and the people. This tsunami is generating major upheavals in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, where the imperialist fronts of Ukraine and the Middle East intersect.
The US–EU tensions within NATO, the EU’s attempt to integrate the military industry of its “ally” Turkey, the escalating confrontation between Turkey and Israel, and the further NATO-ization of Cyprus are tightening the web of imperialist rivalries and contradictions shaping Greek–Turkish relations.
Whether in “calm” or “turbulent” waters, the Greek and Turkish peoples have nothing positive to expect from these developments. The time has come to place at the forefront the homeland of their own interests and needs, in opposition to the homeland of rivalries and conflicts driven by the interests of the bourgeoisie on both shores of the Aegean.
This means strengthening solidarity and the struggle against imperialist plans and involvement, and against the real adversary: capital and its power in every country.