The Greek-Turkish Conflict in the Aegean: Imagined Enemies Book

Abbreviations x

Note on Turkish Letters xii

Preface and Acknowledgements xiii

Part I Greeks and Turks: History Shrouded in National Myth

1 Introduction 3

2 The Perennial Imagination 5

The Greek narrative 6

The Turkish narrative 10

Beyond the idea of perennial conflict 15

3 The Modernist Imagination: A 19th Century Conflict 31

The Greek Revolution 32

Developments in the Ottoman Empire and Greece (1830-50s) 37

Developments in the Ottoman Empire and Greece (1860-80s) 41

Coexistence still alive 43

4 The Contemporary Perspective 52

The prelude 52

The Balkan Wars and the First World War 54

The Greek-Turkish War 56

The endgame in Asia Minor 60

The respective national narratives 61

5 From Lausanne to the 1974 Cyprus Crisis 66

The landmark of Lausanne 66

The aftermath: friends at last 67

Clouds on the horizon and renewed friendship 68

The Cyprus debacle 69

Part II The Aegean: Conflict and Diplomacy

6 The First Years of the Dispute 77

The beginning: continental shelf, territorial sea 77

From the 1974 Cyprus crisis to 1977 81

7 The Montreux Spirit (1978-September 1981) 95

The Montreux summit 95

The Greek-Turkish dialogue (1978-September 1981) 98

An assessment of the Greek-Turkish dialogue 107

8 Greek-Turkish Relations at the Nadir (October 1981-9) 116

The new setting 116

The March 1987 crisis and the day after 120

The spirit of Davos 123

An assessment and the Greek enigma 126

9 In the Doldrums (1990-February 1999) 132

From a standstill to traditional antagonism 132

The Imia/Kardak crisis 134

Cautious steps that came to naught 136

10 Détente 144

The unexpected thaw of 1999 144

Explaining the unexpected 148

The Aegean dialogue: the small package 151

Détente running out of steam (2004-9) 154

Part III The Legal Dimension of the Aegean Conflict

11 The Continental Shelf 167

The respective arguments and their limitations 168

A procedural dispute and its misreading 170

Adjudication and case law 172

The Aegean continental shelf: delimitation? 174

12 Territorial Sea 181

Developments in international law and the stance of Greece and Turkey 181

The Greek case 183

The Turkish case 183

Casus belli 185

International law and practice 187

In lieu of a conclusion 188

13 National Airspace 193

International law, Greece and Turkey 193

Assesing the Greek case 195

A reappraisal 197

14 Demilitarisation 201

Lemnos and Samothrace 201

Lesbos, Chios, Samos and Ikaria 203

The Dodecanese Islands 204

Concluding remarks 205

15 Imia/Kardak and the Grey Zones 209

16 Flight Information Regions and NATO Operational Control 214

Flight Information Regions 214

NATO operational control 217

Part IV The Crux of the Problem

17 What is to be Done? 223

The Aegean dispute on ice: enter economic cooperation 224

The short cut: resolving the Aegean conflict 228

The long haul: identity and national narratives 231

A quasi-conclusion: the Aegean conflict as a paradox 242

Bibliography 250

Index 273