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Aug 1, 2024 9 tweets 5 min read
Innocent Passage -UNCLOS🧵

One of the fundamental principles of UNCLOS is that all ships of all states, including both civilian and military vessels, enjoy the right of innocent passage through the territorial sea of other states.

📍Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State. Such passage shall take place in conformity with UNCLOS and with other rules of international law.Image
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The right of innocent passage is already being used in the Aegean archipelago in the 6nm territorial waters. Ships from other countries already can move unperturbed through Greek territorial waters and through narrow passages between the islands. Image
Jun 1, 2024 14 tweets 11 min read
30th January 1923.
The “Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations" is signed at Lausanne, Switzerland, by the governments of Greece and Turkey.
The convention provided for a compulsory exchange of populations: about 1.250.000 Greeks left Turkey for Greece, and about 400,000 Turks left Greece for Turkey.
Because the Patriarchate of the Eastern Orthodox Church was located in Istanbul, the Patriarchate and Greeks who had been living in Istanbul at least since 1918 were excluded from the population exchange as the Turkish side accepted their right to stay in their place of birth.
As part of the agreement, the Muslim minority living in Western Thrace-roughly equivalent numerically-was also excluded.
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The population exchange was designed to protect the remaining Greek Christian minority in Asia Minor, who had been massacred repeatedly in the Ottoman Empire before and during WWI.
However, by the time the agreement was to take effect on 1 May 1923, most of the Greeks of Asia Minor had either fled or had been killed. Thus, of the 1,250,000 to be transferred only about 190,000 still remained in Turkey by that time.Image
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May 25, 2024 16 tweets 10 min read
Smyrna 1908.
The multicultural city that the Europeans called "the Paris of the Levant" and the jewell of Asia Minor.

Before its destruction by the Turks, the city of Smyrna on the Anatolian coast was one of the world’s richest, most cosmopolitan and ethnically diverse metropolises, comprising of Greeks, Ottomans, Armenians, Jews, Europeans, and Levantines.
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Greeks had lived in Smyrna for thousands of years.
The coastline of Asia Minor along with Pontus have been cradles of Hellenism since the 9th century B.C. and Greeks settled in most of the hinterland, already since the 2nd century B.C.

Byzantium, lost gradually its sovereignty over the wider area in a time lapse of 400 years, starting from the mid 11th century. All Greek communities of Asia Minor and Pontus fell under the sovereignty of the Ottoman Empire in the mid 15th century.
In spite of difficult conditions faced by Greek people throughout that period, they maintained their religious and communal existence till the beginning of the WWI.Image
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Sep 13, 2023 17 tweets 8 min read
On this day: September 13th 1922, Turkish soldiers set fire to Smyrna’s Greek and Armenian quarters and went on a rampage of rape, pillage and mass murder.

🧵The destruction of #Smyrna;
One of the great atrocities of the 20th century. Image The Great Fire of Smyrna was the peak of the Asia Minor Catastrophe, and the last phase of the Greek genocide, bringing an end to the 3,000-year Greek presence on Anatolia’s Aegean shore and shifting the population ratio between Muslims and non-Muslims.
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Feb 14, 2023 17 tweets 7 min read
Since 1900, Greece had 679 earthquakes up to a magnitude of 7.7.

The strongest earthquake since 1900 occurred 67 years ago:
Major magnitude 7.7 earthquake - 19 km south of Amorgos, Cyclades, South Aegean, Greece, on Monday, July 9, 1956 at 03:11 GMT

Earthquakes in Greece:🧵 Greece is the most earthquake-prone country in Europe, as it located at the convergence of the Eurasian plate over the African one, as well as the western termination of the North Anatolian Fault Zone.

researchgate.net/publication/26…
Jan 22, 2023 6 tweets 3 min read
The same Turkey that refers to “insults of sacred values”& respect for religious symbols desecrated Hagia Sophia-the Christian church that was once the center of Christian Orthodox faith converting it into a mosque.

Turkey has a long tradition desecrating Christian churches. In the church of Hagia Sophia, the Christian religious symbols have been covered with large curtains and large disks depicting the names of Allah, the Prophet Muhammad and four caliphs.
Jan 21, 2023 13 tweets 7 min read
Hagia Sophia is one of the most important Byzantine structures in the world; a UNESCO World Heritage Site designed by Greek architects Isidore of Miletus & Anthemius of Tralles. It was once the world’s largest interior space and the first to employ a fully pendentive dome.
🧵 ImageImage Hagia Sophia was the symbol of the greatness of the Byzantine Empire and the seat of the Patriarchate of Constantinople; a Christian city of immense wealth & magnificent architecture, governed by Roman law, observed Christianity & adopted Greek as its primary language. Image
Jan 21, 2023 7 tweets 3 min read
Turkish hostilities should never be dismissed as pure rhetoric; They are part of a strategy guiding Turkey’s Blue Homeland foreign policy.
An expansionist policy where Turkey as a regional superpower controls its surrounding seas & energy resources.

Greece stands in its way.
1/7 Behind Turkey’s gunboat diplomacy, threats of missile strikes & invasions, the intent is real and this increasingly aggressive & revisionist foreign policy posture is a constant threat to peace and security in the region.
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Jan 6, 2023 24 tweets 9 min read
“The most valuable treasures of antiquity are withheld from the people whose ancestors created them and which could inspire their youth anew with the story they tell and the knowledge that their progenitors could once create such beauty.”

🏛️ The Parthenon Sculptures 🧵 Image The Parthenon is one of the most important edifices in all of history. Built in 447BC after the Greeks had successfully repulsed Persian invaders, it symbolised the blossoming of democracy, rule of law, philosophy, ethics, theatre, art & architecture in Western civilisation. ImageImage
Dec 29, 2022 24 tweets 7 min read
What if Greece extends its territorial waters to 12miles in the Aegean?

Greece’s territorial waters and Turkey.
🧵 Coastal states are entitled to claim a territorial sea, extending to a maximum of 12mi measured from the coastal baselines. This customary rule is stipulated by the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. (UNCLOS)
Dec 25, 2022 22 tweets 11 min read
The Aegean Archipelago

Millions of people visit the Aegean Sea and its islands every year to enjoy the sun, traditional lifestyle & warmhearted people. What most don't know is that the Aegean Sea has been on a 20 million-year journey to take on the shape they see around them.🧵 The Greek word Archipelago meaning "chief sea," was originally applied specifically to the Aegean Sea and its islands. Many of the Aegean islands are actually extensions of the mountains on the mainland. Later the word came to mean a large group or chain of islands.
Nov 28, 2022 15 tweets 6 min read
Since the early 1970’s Turkey has been systematically building a list of “Greek-Turkish disputes.”

The goal of this policy against Greece has been the changing of the territorial status quo provided for in international treaties and international law.

Thread: 🧵1/14 Image 🔴1973: The issue of delimiting the continental shelf. The repeated Turkish attempts to violate Greece’s sovereign rights on the continental shelf have become a serious source of friction in the two countries’ bilateral relations, even bringing them close to war (1974, 1976,1987) Image
Nov 26, 2022 9 tweets 3 min read
“Four Sides are the Enemy".

Erdogan promised “zero problems with neighbours” only to enmesh Turkey in problems with every single neighbour; Iraq, Syria, the Kurds and Greece. Turkey blames everyone else apart from themselves.
➡️ In 2019 Turkey’s military invasion in Syria destabilised the region and exacerbated humanitarian suffering. Turkey’s assault on the Syrian Kurds – the most reliable partner of the US in the fight against ISIS – has hampered efforts to wipe out ISIS. Image
Nov 26, 2022 5 tweets 2 min read
Η σημερινή Αθήνα πάσχει από τις συνέπειες μιας ασύστολης πολεοδομικής ανάπτυξης που επιβαρύνουν την ζωή των κατοίκων της και σκιάζουν την αίγλη της ιστορίας της. Σημαντικές αρχιτεκτονικές επεμβάσεις χρειάζονται για να ανατρέψουν αυτήν την αρνητική εικόνα και να αναδείξουν Image την φυσική ομορφιά αλλά και την πολιτιστική κληρονομιά της.
Οι πολιτικοί αγνοούν την αρχιτεκτονική και στη πλειοψηφία τους, δεν έχουν ιδέα για τη σημασία και την ιστορία της, παρόλο που εἰναι αλληλένδετη με την Ιστορία μας.
Nov 18, 2022 17 tweets 8 min read
Historically one of the main players in the Mediterranean were undoubtedly the Greeks who once controlled such a large part of the ancient world.
The phrase of Pericles that "A Sea State is a great State", is quoted on the emblem of the modern Hellenic Navy.

Thread 🧵➡️ The ancient Greeks were the first Western civilisation to have developed the art of navigation at sea, using the sun and the stars for direction around 4,000 years ago in 2,000 BC.➡️
Nov 3, 2022 16 tweets 4 min read
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday warned Greece against extending its territorial waters in the Aegean Sea, adding that Ankara “will not accept a fait accompli that has kept Turkey trapped in its coastline.”

Is this a legitimate dispute?

Thread 🧵1/15 Image 1️⃣According to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), Greece has the right to extend its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles. Territorial waters are considered to be part of the country’s national territory. Image
Oct 16, 2022 15 tweets 5 min read
In the context of its well-known policy to obtain the full control over half of the Aegean, Turkey promoted in 2021,with the submission of letters to the UN, a novel theory linking its decades-old claim for the complete demilitarisation of the islands of the Aegean. ⬇️

🧵 1/14 1️⃣Turkey is the only country that refers to and demands the demilitarization of the “islands in the Eastern Aegean”.
With regard to the militarization of the islands in the Eastern Aegean, various international agreements apply. In particular :
Oct 14, 2022 12 tweets 3 min read
This is Turkey's envisioned “Blue Homeland”. A claim in complete violation of the United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) which violates Greek sovereign rights and puts Turkey at the centre, treating the inhabited Greek islands and Cyprus as an inconvenience.

🧵 ⬇️ 1️⃣In adhering to the Blue Homeland strategy,Turkey implements an unlawful expansionist energy policy in the Eastern Med,exploring for gas reserves.Turkey is refusing to accept the maritime rights of Greece claiming the Aegean islands do not have the right to a continental shelf.
Oct 13, 2022 11 tweets 3 min read
The Turkish propaganda is promoting the novel theory of grey zones distorting and reinterpreting international agreements in order to challeng Greek sovereignty over a number of islands, islets and rocks in the Aegean.
🧵 Image 1️⃣The international legal framework which settled the issues of sovereignty in the region after the World Wars(1923 Treaty of Lausanne & 1947 Paris Peace Treaty) is conclusive and crystal clear.👇

wwi.lib.byu.edu/index.php/Trea…