Turkey touts past maritime conquests ahead of talks on dispute

As Turkey and Greece prepare for talks to calm a bitter maritime dispute, Ankara released a video this week glorifying a 16th-century naval victory that led to the Ottoman Empire taking control of the Mediterranean. The video, shared on Twitter by the presidential communications department and viewed nearly half a million times, intersperses tales of ancient sea battles with footage of modern Turkish warships, driving home a message that Turkey must defend its interests in offshore waters. This doctrine, called “Blue Homeland” in the video and accompanying song, has been championed by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government as it challenges Greek and Cypriot maritime claims that confine Turkey to narrow strips of Aegean and Mediterranean coastal waters. The policy, mirroring Turkey’s assertive military interventions on land in Syria and Libya, has come to prominence in the last year – more than 10 years after it first emerged – and is feeding into the east Mediterranean dispute. Retired Rear Admiral Cihat Yayci, who had a major role in developing the doctrine, said Turkey’s maritime policies were sharpened by the “aggressive stances” of Greece and Cyprus, which signed a series of accords marking out an exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean since 2003. style="width: 100%; height: 100%; position: absolute; top: 0; bottom: 0; right: 0; left: 0;">