Greece continues to assist the Turkish people in this difficult time with missions of both rescue teams and materials.
However, the Erdoğan regime continues unabated with its revisionist policy questioning Greek sovereign rights even at the moment when Greek saviors and through them the entire Greek people have reached out to help the Turkish people in their hour of need.
Turkey with NOTAM A0968/23 claims that it asked Greece to reserve an area west of Lesbos in international airspace for an exercise by Turkish armed forces on February 16 and when Greece refused, it was forced to issue its own NOTAM reserving that area area.
Athens naturally responded with NOTAM A0410/23 in which it emphasizes that the Turkish one is invalid and why Turkey does not have the right to seize areas within the Athens FIR and because the area that Ankara wants includes Greek airspace as it enters from the 10 nautical miles of the EEZ.
This is yet another questioning of Greek sovereign rights and Greek sovereignty by Turkey
The positions of Athens regarding these two issues, i.e. the FIR and the airspace, are as follows:
Athens FIR
On December 7, 1944, the Convention on International Civil Aviation was signed in Chicago, which provided for the establishment of an International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). ICAO, with regional Air Navigation Agreements, established the limits of the areas of responsibility of each of its member states for the control of the airspace (Flight Information Region-FIR). The Athens FIR was demarcated in the context of the European regional air navigation conferences of 1950, 1952 and 1958.
The Athens FIR covers the Greek national airspace and additionally scattered parts of the international airspace, given that it does not concern issues of sovereignty, but of jurisdiction.
Turkey was present at the above conferences from the beginning and accepted the definition of the airspace for which Greece was designated responsible.
In accordance with ICAO rules and international practice, Greece requires, for civil flight safety reasons, that all aircraft, civil and military, submit flight plans before entering the Athens FIR.
Nevertheless, in August 1974, Turkey arbitrarily issued NOTAM 714 ("notice to airmen") attempting to extend its area of jurisdiction to the middle of the Aegean within the Athens FIR. Greece then declared the Aegean a dangerous area (NOTAM 1157). ICAO appealed to both sides without success. Finally, Ankara, in 1980, again unilaterally, revoked NOTAM 714 when it found that the measure harmed its interests and especially its tourism.
However, Turkey since then, arguing that the Chicago Convention does not apply to state aircraft, has consistently refused to submit flight plans for its military aircraft entries into the Athens FIR, thus committing numerous violations of the Air Traffic Rules and creating risks to the safety of civil aviation.
In this context, the Hellenic Air Force is forced to carry out procedures to identify unknown aircraft traces to the competent air traffic authorities, which have entered the Athens FIR without having submitted a flight plan.
National Airspace
The sovereignty of Greece in the air is exercised within 10 nm. from its coasts (pursuant to the Decree of September 6, 1931 (which defined for this purpose a special coastal zone 10 nm from its coasts), combined with laws 5017/1931, 230/1936 and 1815/1988). Greece, as a sovereign state, has chosen to exercise air sovereignty up to the 10 NM limit. of the territorial waters which he defined in 1931, in terms of aviation and policing issues, while in the sea he chose to exercise sovereignty until 6 n.m. (Law 230/1936 and Legislative Decree 187/1973).
Turkey continuously violates the Greek national airspace with military aircraft, often armed, which also carry out low-altitude flights even over inhabited islands.
This behavior of Turkey constitutes a flagrant violation of Greek sovereignty and may cause a heated episode. Turkey's claim regarding the opposition of the Greek national airspace to international law is unfounded for the following reasons:
a) given that "he who is entitled to the greater, is also entitled to the lesser", the exercise of sovereignty in the airspace until 10 p.m. is absolutely legal, since it does not exceed 12 n.m. defining the law of the sea as the upper limit of the extent of the coastal zone and national airspace,
b) Greece has notified the above legislation,
c) Turkey, since 1931 and for many decades accepted the range of 10 n.m. of the Greek national airspace without any protest or challenge, which constitutes tacit acceptance under international law. The relevant Presidential Decree was implemented from 1931 uniformly, without any protest regarding its legal basis.
