Turkey and Greece’s Historic Aegean Dispute Flares Up Over Tourism Marketing
Photo Credit: The Aeagean region is a vital lifeline for the tourism industry of both Turkey and Greece. pixabay / Michelle_Raponi
Skift Take
What may have passed off as tourism promotion has now snowballed into a geopolitical issue as Greece raises objection to Turkey tourism's recent "TurkAegean" campaign. With both countries going to the polls in 2023, the issue might prove to be a big draw for both the ruling parties.
Greece and Turkey are sparring again and this time around it is Turkey tourism’s recently-released “TurkAegean” campaign that has riled its North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) ally.
Under normal circumstances, what may have been a regular promotional campaign, is now being interpreted by Greece as a Turkish narrative to legitimatize its decades-old claims over the Aegean Sea.
Athens was especially critical of the European Union intellectual property office’s approval to Turkey’s request to trademark the term TurkAegean. “Some people … quite simply, did not do their job well,” Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said.
While anyone with a legitimate interest may apply for a trademark at the European Union’s intellectual property office, the issue has been complicated by unauthorised claims made by Turkey against the Greek islands, said Andreas Papatheodorou, professor at the University of the Aegean, Greece.
While acknowledging that the eastern coast of the Aegean Sea belongs to Turkey, Papatheodorou said that the issue wouldn’t have been escalated had Ankara stuck
