Greece planned air and sea exercises from October 12–20 in the central Aegean Sea, overlapping zones Turkey had previously declared for military activities, triggering a NOTAM dispute between the two countries.
Why it matters
- Greece declared exercise areas for October 12–20; Turkey requested changes but Athens refused.
- Ankara issued counter-NOTAMs, declaring Greece's notices "invalid and without legal effect" and affirming the validity of its own.
- The core of the disagreement lies in Athens interpreting its Flight Information Region (FIR) technical air traffic responsibility as equivalent to sovereignty.
Detail: The tension began when Greece scheduled exercises in areas overlapping Turkish-declared military zones, as reported by ProtoThema. Athens bases its NOTAMs on its authority within the Athens FIR, but an FIR boundary is not a state border and does not confer sovereignty over international airspace. Article 3 of the 1944 Chicago Convention specifies that the convention applies to civil aircraft, while state aircraft are treated as government aircraft, reinforcing that FIR responsibility in military activities cannot be interpreted as sovereignty. A similar disagreement exists over airspace: Athens applies a 6-nautical-mile limit to territorial waters but extends national airspace to 10 miles, whereas Ankara considers the 6–10 nautical-mile zone as international airspace.
Why it matters for Turkey: The NOTAM dispute is not merely a technical exercise disagreement. For Turkey, the core issue is rejecting Athens' attempts to convert the FIR's technical responsibility for safety in international airspace into a claim of sovereignty or security authority. The escalation in counter-NOTAM exchanges highlights the potential for the Aegean legal dispute to spill into the military domain.
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