Blue Homeland

The Blue Homeland doctrine (Turkish: Mavi Vatan, lit. 'Blue Homeland') is an irredentist and expansionist concept and doctrine, created by the Chief of Staff of the Turkish Navy Commander Cihat Yaycı, and developed with Admiral Cem Gurdeniz in 2006. The doctrine is representing Turkey's territorial sea, continental shelf, and exclusive economic zone (EEZ) around the Black Sea, as well as its claims of continental shelf and EEZ in the eastern Mediterranean, and the Aegean. Blue Homeland is a Turkish maritime-geopolitical doctrine and strategy which advocates for expanded Turkish EEZ claims across the Black Sea, Aegean Sea and Eastern Mediterranean. First promoted in 2006, it was politicized after the July 2016 failed coup attempt as part of the Republic of Turkey's pursuit of strategic autonomy. The doctrine rejects the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS; which Turkey has not ratified) and advocates for control over roughly 462,000 km2 (178,380 mi2) of maritime territory.

Since 2019, Blue Homeland has been effected via a maritime boundary memorandum of understanding with Libya and the annual Mavi Vatan naval exercises, drawing criticism from Greece, Cyprus, the European Union and NATO for challenging established maritime norms and intensifying regional security and energy disputes. Also in 2019, a senior official of the Turkish Naval Forces stated that Turkey was "ready to protect every swath of our 462,000 square kilometer blue homeland with great determination," while the German Institute for International and Security Affairs described the doctrine as a "neo-Ottoman" and "neo-imperial" agenda.


This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.