In accordance with International Law (Articles 1 and 2 of the Chicago Convention of 1944 on Civil Aviation) the sovereign airspace of a state is the airspace above its territory and its territorial waters.

The delimitation of the lateral limits of the territorial waters of a coastal State is ruled by Article 3 of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC), which provides that “Every State has the right to establish the breadth of its territorial sea up to a limit not exceeding 12 nautical miles”. The language of this Article confirms, in a very clear manner, the principle that the coastal State has the right unilaterally to decide when and to what extent it is going to apply the 12-mile limit. Consequently, there is no obligation for the coastal State to ask for the approval of any neighbouring state in order to establish the breadth of its territorial sea, and, therefore, any objection on the part of a third state concerning the choice of the coastal state in this respect would be unsubstantiated, provided, of course, that the breadth adopted did not exceed the 12-mile limit.

For the time being, Greece has fixed the lateral limits of its territorial waters in two different ways: a six-mile territorial sea, for general purposes, established by Law in 1936, with a 10-mile territorial sea, established by Decree in 1931 for aviation and air-policing purposes. Following this arrangement, the lateral limits of Greece's national airspace were legally defined at 10 n.m., with reference to the delimitation of a special subject territorial zone of 10 n.m., serving the requirements of aviation and air police.

The reason for this “double” arrangement was Greece's policy of facilitating the freedom of navigation at that time. Indeed, in 1931, quite in conformity with international law, Greece could have created a 10-nautical-mile territorial zone of general application. However, Greece refrained from doing so out of liberalism towards maritime navigation.

In any case, it can be logically deduced that, according to the provision of the art. 3 of the LOSC, Greece, who has the right to extend its territorial waters to 12 n.m., also the right, in complete observance of the International Law, to partly exercise this right by defining its territorial waters at a distance of 10 n.m. from its coasts, for aviation and air-policing purposes.

At the same time, among its other rights deriving from the Law of the Sea, Greece does reserve its right to extend its territorial waters to 12 n.m., whenever she decides to do so. In order to confirm this right, the Government of Greece proceeded to the following declaration upon ratification of the LOSC, in July, 1995: “….Greece shall determine when and how it shall exercise these rights, according to its national strategy. This shall not imply that Greece renounces these rights in any way…..”

In this respect, it is worth mentioning that the 12-mile rule proved a customary rule of international law which was in force before the LOSC came into effect, since, at the time of the Conventions coming into force, about 120 states had already adopted a 12-mile territorial sea. Moreover, the respective provision of the Article 3 of the LOSC was accepted by all but one participant – Turkey -- during the 3rd U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS III). (However, it is interesting to add that, as early as 1956, Turkey, who up to now has not been a signatory of the LOSC, officially proclaimed, in writing, that the 12-mile rule was already a rule of international law. In application of this, Turkey adopted a 12-mile territorial sea in the Black Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. If in the Aegean Sea its territorial waters are six miles wide, this is due exclusively to the real fact that the proximity of the Greek islands to the Asiatic coast does not permit the extension to 12 n.m.).

In any case, the participant countries to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982, either by ratification, accession or succession, have already reached the number of 135 (almost 35 countries have also signed this Convention). The US, in recent years, has also reconsidered its previous policy and declared its intention to accede to it in the future. Almost ten years ago, namely during the dispute over the Gulf of Surt, the US had already asserted that the extension by a coastal state of its territorial sea beyond the limit of 12 n.m. was illegal.

However, in defiance of any legal and historical fact, Turkey questions the lateral limits of Greece's national airspace, defined at 10 n.m., despite the fact that Turkey itself respected the above mentioned status for 44 consecutive years.

In this respect, it has to be stressed that Greece, in accordance with international procedures, namely the international aeronautical regulations and the relevant provisions of the Chicago Convention of 1944, has without any delay proceeded to the recognition of Hellenic airspace delimitation at 10 n.m., in order to secure legality on an international level, and, especially, with regard to neighbouring states.

Thus, in view of the relevant obligation of Greece deriving from Annex “F” of the 1919 Paris Convention on Air Navigation, concerning aeronautical charts, Greece proceeded to a notification of the CINA (Commission Internationale de Navigation Aerienne) of airspace charts (published in Annex I of the presidential degree 7/14-8-1931 concerning Air Traffic Regulation), delimitation of “air ways” and points of “transit” on its northern and eastern borders.

After the coming into force of Annex 4 of the Chicago Convention concerning Aeronautical Charts, the first aeronautical charts of ICAO, published in 1949, were based on the CINA charts. In their second publication, in 1955, new aeronautical charts that Greece published with a clear description of its national airspace boundaries in 10 n.m. were included. It must be noted that the corresponding Turkish aeronautical charts also include the boundaries of Hellenic national airspace at 10n.m.

The limits of the Athens FIR were determined, and the relevant Air Navigation European Plan Chart was approved, during the Regional Air Navigation Meetings of Paris (1952) and Geneva (1958), based on the external limits of the territorial waters and boundaries of the adjacent FIR's of the neighbouring states. Turkey participated in these Regional Meetings without reserve concerning the 10 n.m. lateral limits of Hellenic national airspace. (In this respect, it must be noted that in the minutes of the 1958 Regional Meeting, explicit reference is made to the Hellenic national aeronautical charts which were notified to ICAO in 1955 and describe, among other things, the limits of Hellenic national airspace [international boundaries of the Balkan Region and European part of Turkey] at 10 n.m., without any objection on the part of Turkey).

The official notification of the Hellenic national airspace delimitation, with reference to the 1931 presidential decree, was published in the Aeronautical Information Manual edited, according to Annex 15 of the Chicago Convention, by the Civil Aviation Authority: AIP Greece, vol. 1, RAC 0-1.2.1 “in connection with Civil Aviation and Air Police, the territorial waters extend up to 10 n.m. from the coast”.

Moreover, the status of 10 n.m. has been in force since 1931, when the relevant presidential decree was issued and uniformly applied, without any contestation of its legitimacy from third countries, according to the procedures provided for by the ICAO, or even from the institutions of the International Civil Aviation Organisation and, in particular, the Council.

With reference to the aforementioned, it has also to be noted that in the Bucharest Convention of 24th.1.1936 on Air Navigation, signed by Romania, Yugoslavia, Turkey and Greece, the four contracting states expressed their will that the principle of national sovereignty over airspace should be applied on the basis of the existing legal framework of these States (as regards Greece, taking into consideration the 1931 presidential decree).

However, since 1975, Turkey has started violating Greek national airspace with its military aircraft, while adopting a policy of preventing Greece by all means from exercising its right to extend its territorial waters up to 12 n.m. Thus, not only the has Turkish Government repeatedly used the threat of war, by declaring that the extension of the Greek territorial sea to 12 n.m. constitutes a casus belli, but, what is more, the Turkish Parliament has adopted a relevant resolution to authorise the Turkish Government to take all the necessary measures, military ones included, against Greece in such a case. This behaviour is not only illegal, as far as it tries to prevent the application of the provisions of the Law of the Sea, but, mainly, constitutes a flagrant violation of article 2, paragraph 4, of the UN Chapter, which outlaws the use of force, as well as the threat of use of force, in the field of international relations.

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