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New proof of Albania's mistake to go to The Hague

2022-07-27 11:08:33Pikëpamje SHKRUAR NGA SHABAN MURATI

New proof of Albania's mistake to go to The Hague

A new proof of the error of the government of Albania, which accepted Greece's request to go together to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for maritime disputes, was brought personally by Greek Foreign Minister Dendias.

In an interview with the Greek press on July 21, Dendias revealed that one of the issues with which he will go to The Hague is "the full rights of the Greek islands".

It is the first time that the Greek foreign minister, co-author of the political agreement of October 20, 2020 with the Albanian prime minister for the two countries to go together to The Hague, reveals one of the secret issues of the Greek-Albanian government talks on the bilateral agreement to go together with an agenda in The Hague.

The Prime Minister of Albania, from October 20, 2020 until today, has never declared what Albania will go to the International Court of Justice in The Hague for, together with Greece. He has never said it, but neither have the 140 deputies in the last two legislatures ever asked the prime minister in parliament what he is going to The Hague for. The 140 journalists who have attended his press conferences over the past two years have never asked him what he is going to The Hague for.

The prime minister cannot say it, because his foreign minister in the official letter sent to the president of the republic in February 2018 announces that the object of the talks with Greece is the maritime border, the continental shelf and the exclusive economic zones, i.e. the same object of the black sea agreement of 2009, sued by the Socialist Party headed by Edi Ramë and annulled by the Constitutional Court of Albania.

We need to thank the Greek foreign minister, who also reveals to the Albanian public opinion that the Greek appetite has been growing and that one of the issues of the new joint Albanian-Greek agreement to go together to The Hague is the vexed issue of " full rights of the Greek islands".

It would be truly scandalous if the government of Albania would agree to the bilateral agreement, which is being prepared behind the scenes of secret government talks, to lead to the addition of the full rights of the Greek islands to Albania in The Hague. This is a new Greek territorial claim, put on the Greek diplomatic agenda after Greece unilaterally agreed to expand Greek territorial waters to 12 thousand in the region of the islands of the Ionian Sea. This issue did not appear in the black sea agreement of 2009 between Albania and Greece.

What content and negative effects does the issue of the full rights of the Greek islands have in relation to Albania, to present together at the International Court of Justice in The Hague?

First, this will create and legalize new maritime borders between Albania and Greece in relation to the small islands located north of the island of Corfu. On December 25, 2020, the Greek presidential decree extending to 12 miles of Greek territorial waters in the Ionian Sea entered into force, where it is clearly stated that "this decree will be applied from the northernmost point of the islands of the Ionian Sea region".

This means that the small Greek islands of Erikuza and Otonoi, which are in front of the Albanian coast, with the Greek presidential decree gain new maritime borders, for which it is enough to open the map to see that they will rob Albanian water spaces in our territorial waters . The Greek island of Erikuza is located 13.4 miles from the Albanian coast. According to the best Albanian sea experts, so far the commercial and military fleet of both states in the Erikuza-Porto Palermo line has respected the sovereign right of Albania for 12 miles of Albanian territorial waters and the remaining part belonged to Greek waters.

This status derives from the fact that the small island of Erikuza did not enjoy the right of the middle line with the Albanian coast, which is the criterion defined for the maritime separation between Corfu and the Albanian coast by the great powers with the Treaty of Florence of January 27, 1925 and with the "Final Delimitation Act of Albania's Borders" Treaty of July 30, 1926.

Now Greece has unilaterally and arbitrarily created a new border situation. If Greece applies to Erikouza, as the Greek presidential decree says, the expansion of the maritime border to 12 miles, this automatically leads to a new border division of the area between that island and the Albanian coast. As a result, Greece gives itself the right to push its border five miles further, entering and taking new Albanian maritime spaces.

With the Greek presidential decree of December 25, 2020, the arbitrarily established and internationally recognized center line for Corfu is also unfairly attached to the separation of Erikuza Island from the Albanian coast. Greece illegally gives its island a border status, which it does not belong to, and from which the major European powers excluded it when they finally defined the maritime border between Corfu and Albania in 1926.

Now Greece seeks to include it in the bilateral agreement of the Hague agreement and force Albania to accept the new maritime borders of the small Greek islands to the detriment of Albanian sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Secondly, by reclaiming the issue of the full rights of the Greek islands in the talks with Albania and in the Hague trial, Greece aims to legalize its great ambition that the small Greek islands north of Corfu receive the right to the continental shelf. and of the exclusive economic zone in relation to Albania, annexing from the Albanian continental shelf and from the Albanian exclusive economic zone.

It is known to diplomatic and legal experts that the acceptance of the 12-mile stretch of Greek territorial waters in the small islands north of Corfu is circular in nature, i.e. it includes the space around the island. If the government of Albania were to make the fatal mistake of recognizing the unfair right of the small Greek islands north of Corfu to the continental shelf and exclusive economic zones, it would cause the islands of Erikousa and Otonoi to swallow up large parts of the Albanian continental shelf and the Albanian exclusive economic zone, which start from the Albanian coastline from Himare to Karaburun.

The Greek claim for full rights to the small Greek islands north of Corfu in front of the Albanian coast constitutes a serious blow to maritime sovereignty, to the maritime state borders, to the continental shelf and the Albanian exclusive economic zone. No state accepts that small islands and reefs around a large island have the right to a continental shelf and exclusive economic zones.

The small Greek islands to the north of Corfu: Erikouza and Otonoi, have no right to extend the maritime border beyond the recognized line of the Greek-Albanian maritime border, which they have had and have respected since 1926 of the final delimitation act of Albania until today.

The Government of Albania must in no way accept that the small Greek islands north of Corfu gain new maritime borders with Albania and rob Albanian territorial waters and Albanian maritime areas. The Government of Albania must never accept that in the new agreement, which is being discussed in secret to go together to The Hague, the Greek demand for full rights of the small Greek islands north of Corfu in relation to Albania will be included.

The government and diplomacy of Albania should have enough information and diplomatic culture to know that Greece itself has accepted in its recent bilateral maritime agreements with the Mediterranean states that the Greek islands do not have rights to the continental shelf and exclusive economic zones. Albania should see the consolidated international model and practice for the issue of islands, recently confirmed by the exclusive economic zone agreements that Greece signed with Italy in June 2020 and with Egypt in August 2020.

In both agreements with these two countries, Greece accepts that its islands have no effect on the definition of exclusive economic zones. In Greece's agreements with Italy and Egypt, Athens has accepted the lack of island rights even for large islands such as Crete, Rhodes, Corfu, etc. Former Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kocias, analyzing the agreement between Greece and Italy of June 2020, states that "in the agreement, the 1977 coordinates for the continental shelf between the two countries were accepted, which have a limited impact on the Greek islands such as Diapontian and Sofrades. The islands were left with a limited sphere of influence". The Greek newspaper "Protothema" wrote: "Greece in the agreement with Italy does not give full rights to the three islands: Otonoi, Kefaloni and Sofrades". The "en.C4defence.com" portal wrote:

Even Egypt in the agreement with Greece on the exclusive economic zones did not accept the effect of the Greek islands in the delimitation of the exclusive economic zones even for the large Greek islands such as Crete and Rhodes, as for the small Greek islands it was not even considered. The Greek media "Balkans.eu" wrote that "in this agreement with Egypt the government was quick to accept a limited influence of Crete, its large island in the Aegean, and has accepted a partial demarcation of the exclusive economic zone for the island of Rhodes ".

The new dangerous Greek claim to include in the new bilateral agreement for going to The Hague the full rights of the Greek islands in front of Albania should serve as a new alarm of concern for the government and for our diplomacy. Albania should not accept Greek territorial claims to the borders and to the Albanian maritime areas, with any pretext and alibi that may be made. We are in front of an alarm signal for the great caution that the Albanian government and diplomacy must show on the bilateral agreement to go to The Hague.

The claim of the Greek foreign minister for the full rights of the Greek islands constitutes a new proof, which shows how wrong, hasty and harmful is the decision of the government of Albania to obey the request of Greece to take the dispute maritime together in The Hague.

It is no coincidence that Greece has not taken the maritime disputes with Turkey to The Hague, nor the maritime disputes with Egypt and Italy, with which the exclusive economic zone talks alone lasted 43 years. When Dendias was asked by the Greek media why Athens does not take the maritime dispute with Turkey to The Hague, he answered enigmatically that "The Hague is a very distant country".

Surprisingly, only with Albania, The Hague became a very close place for Athens, and only with Albania did Athens hurry to take it to The Hague. He hurried, because the government of Albania has an inferiority complex to Greece and did not learn from the right stance of Turkey, which rejected the suggestions to take it to The Hague, because as Turkish Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu stated, "Greece has reservations about the jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice." of Justice on the delimitation of maritime boundaries". Turkey is a country with serious diplomacy, and I know that on January 14, 2015, the Greek government submitted its official document to the UN, where it states that it does not recognize the jurisdiction of the UN International Courts regarding the issue of its maritime borders.

I wrote about this official Greek legal and diplomatic position in 2018 in my book "The issue of sea peace: A Greek or Albanian diplomatic intrigue?". But in 2020, profane Albania summarily accepted the absurd Greek request to The Hague.

After the announcement of the Greek presidential decree on the extension of maritime borders in the islands of the Ionian Sea, I addressed the authorities: "If the government and diplomacy of Albania do not strongly oppose the effect of the Greek islands on the Greek program of expanding territorial waters in the islands of the Ionian Sea in front of Albania, they are in the same anti-Albanian costume as the government and diplomacy of the first illegal maritime agreement of 2009. And in both cases, Greece kills the Albanian territorial integrity with the hands of the Albanian governments". (The book "Sea between Albania and Greece", year 2021, pg. 178).

 


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