, Columnist
International Law Can’t Solve the Greco-Turkish Island Problem
The Law of the Sea is no match for geography, history and politics. To avoid war, Ankara, Athens and others must talk.
Kastellorizo: Worth fighting over?
Photographer: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP via Getty Images
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Kastellorizo is one of those places that might become a cause for war even though most people couldn’t find it on a map.
The combatants would be Greece and Turkey, formally NATO “allies” but in reality perennial foes since the sloppy unraveling of the Ottoman Empire. And their war would be less about the island as such than about the Mediterranean waters said to belong to it. That’s because underneath the sea bed, there may be lots of oil and gas.