Cyprus-Forum.com

[Lordo]

legally speaking is economic zone sovereign territory.
are other countries able to search anywhere they choose legally despite the fact that the zone may belong to others.

[Maximus]

You have been arguing here for years with anyone and everyone about these issues.

Why don't you tell us. Is Turkey able to search anywhere she chooses despite the fact that the zone may belong to others?

[Nikitas]

International law is clear to everyone, including Turkey in the Black Sea, but not elsewhere.

1- The sovereignty extends to the resources of the sea bed and the sea, ie fisheries.

2- This sovereignty does not affect the navigation freedom of the seas.

3- Carrying out searches for resources in another nations EEZ is a violation of sovereignty.

4- Carrying out general scientific oceanographic research is not.

[Lordo]

and yet here is the un rep saying different.

http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/04/08/eide- ... territory/

[Maximus]

UN Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide, in an interview with the Cyprus News Agency published on Wednesday, said nobody had exploited the island’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) because it was not sovereign territory.

Because the economic zone is not sovereign territory, anybody can basically do anything there but for taking out the resources.

The clue is the word exclusive. Exclusive economic zone. It is an extension of sovereign territory, its exclusive.

The one good thing he said though was nobody can take out resources except or without the consent of the country the economic zone is exclusive to.

This is the UN's convention on the law of the sea.

Out to 12 nautical miles (22 kilometres; 14 miles) from the baseline, the coastal state is free to set laws, regulate use, and use any resource. Vessels were given the right of innocent passage through any territorial waters, with strategic straits allowing the passage of military craft as transit passage, in that naval vessels are allowed to maintain postures that would be illegal in territorial waters. "Innocent passage" is defined by the convention as passing through waters in an expeditious and continuous manner, which is not "prejudicial to the peace, good order or the security" of the coastal state. Fishing, polluting, weapons practice, and spying are not "innocent", and submarines and other underwater vehicles are required to navigate on the surface and to show their flag. Nations can also temporarily suspend innocent passage in specific areas of their territorial seas, if doing so is essential for the protection of its security.

Exclusive economic zones (EEZs)
These extend from the edge of the territorial sea out to 200 nautical miles (370 kilometres; 230 miles) from the baseline. Within this area, the coastal nation has sole exploitation rights over all natural resources.

[Maximus]

The north of Cyprus (the "TRNC") is sovereign territory though !

[umit07]

and yet here is the un rep saying different.

http://cyprus-mail.com/2015/04/08/eide- ... territory/

The basic answer is NO Lordo. The EEZ of a nation is not merely an extension of it's sovereign waters. This is very clear, Turkey or any other nation can park as many warships as they want in Cyprus's EEZ without any form of recourse. One cannot do this in another countries sovereign waters.

Firstly one has to have an idea of the sources of International Law;

1. Treaty Law (e.g; UNCLOS)
2. Customary International Law (E.g; Diplomatic Immunity, many parts of International Trade law and law of war)
3. General Principles

Turkey along with the US is not a party to UNCLOS, hence under treaty law they have no obligations. However what many Greek/GC commentators are arguing is that the wide acceptance of UNCLOS (over 160 countries) has transformed UNCLOS into a form of customary law. This is the issue that should really be discussed.

P.S; Nikitas is the only person to comment so far who has knowledge of what he's talking about.

[Nikitas]

Turkey'sambivalent attitude to the LOC seems to indicate a certain awareness that the LOC has become customary international law. In the Black Sea it applies it fully. In the Aegean it insists that it is a special case, a closed sea, and it goes further and asserts that yet a different regime applies east of Rodos. Arguably the Black Sea is an even more closed sea than the Aegean, and what was agreed there should apply to the Aegean and the East Med.

Lately Turkey pressured Albania to renege on an agreement over the EEZ with Greece. This was naturally laughed at by the Italians who are also parties to any EEZ delineation in the Adriatic and Ionian seas and eventually the agreement will be revived because it is needed before Albania can join the EU. That move will leave the Aegean as the only body of European waters where the LOC does not apply. In the East Med the agreements between Cyprus, Egypt and Israel have more or less clinched it.

Turkey is applying pressure in the form of massive naval exercises in the Aegean, the last one involved 70 surface ships and frequent exrcising of the right of innocent passage through Greek island waters. As one foreign naval expert said, "these moves give an excellent opportunity for the collection of sonar data on each and every ship of the Turkish navy from land operated hydrophones, without the use of shadow patrols, only a fool admiral would do that", the gentleman is a naval veteran of undisputed expertise. I cannot reveal his name or nationality.

[Lordo]

nope it clearly says they can even search for resources, it is the extraction they are not allowed to do. but as the gcs have gone ahead and dug the well than surely tcs also have the right to do the same. it is not enough you stole the government of the roc now you are claiming all the resources too. dream on. without peace you shall shall have a big fat zero like my friend charlui the ugly.

[bill cobbett]

For years in and in dozens and dozens of posts on the subject, our cousin Vromoshillo (who, as you will all know, is the ugliest bugger around, and you will all have seen cow dung more attractive than him) has been telling us that most of the HCs around CY belong to Turkey.

Time and time again he's tried to convince anyone that would listen (and, naturally and quite rightly, no one does) that CY has the same right to an UNCLOS-compliant EEZ as an uninhabited island...!!!

At every opportunity the miserable verbal itinerant and Promoter and Regurgitator of Turkish Propaganda, has been keen to give it all away to Turkey.

Isn't this history of your give-away views about right, isn't the above a fair assessment of your capitulation to Turkey, Cousin Shessmeno ...???