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Straits Times
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Straits Times
Greece reveals boundaries of two marine parks in Ionian and Aegean seas
FILE PHOTO: A man paddles in the waters of the Ionian Sea near Sidari settlement on the island of Corfu, Greece July 26, 2019. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko/File Photo ATHENS - Greece revealed on Monday the boundaries of two planned marine parks in the Ionian and Aegean seas, with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis saying they will be the largest in the Mediterranean region. Athens wants to establish the parks, for the protection of sea mammals and turtles in the Ionian Sea and for seabirds and seals in the Aegean, this year. Mitsotakis said they will help the country meet its global commitment to expand marine protected areas to 30% of its waters by 2030. "They will allow us to meet the target ... way ahead of schedule," Mitsotakis said. "They will be vast sanctuaries for life beneath the waves," he said, adding that trawling of the sea floor will be banned inside the zones. The environmental studies on the parks' boundaries were submitted on Monday for public consultation until September 22. The planned Aegean Sea park has previously stirred tensions between Greece and neighbouring Turkey, with the two countries at odds over a range of issues including maritime boundaries. Athens has said the park's boundaries are within Greece's territorial waters. Turkey's Foreign Ministry said Greece was exploiting universal values such as environmental issues, that the parks would have no legal bearing on disputes between the neighbours in the Aegean and Mediterranean, and that Turkey will announce its own projects for marine life protection in coming days. "Unilateral actions should be avoided in closed or semi-enclosed seas such as the Aegean and the Mediterranean," it said in a statement, adding Ankara was ready to work with Athens as a fellow Aegean coastal state to address any outstanding disputes while the NATO allies try to maintain positive sentiment. The Aegean park, at 9,500 square kilometres, will initially expand around the southern Cyclades islands, further south from Turkey, according to the maps Greece submitted on Monday, along with the environmental studies. The size of both parks is seen at 27,500 km2, government officials said, and Greece wants to expand them further. When the public consultation ends, the Environment Ministry will draft two presidential decrees, which will be submitted to the Council of State by the end of October, the officials added. The parks will be established once the decrees are published. REUTERS
Straits Times
4 hours ago
- Business
- Straits Times
Greece reveals boundaries of two marine parks in Ionian and Aegean Sea
FILE PHOTO: A man paddles in the waters of the Ionian Sea near Sidari settlement on the island of Corfu, Greece July 26, 2019. REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko/File Photo ATHENS - Greece revealed on Monday the boundaries of two planned marine parks in the Ionian and Aegean Seas, which Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said will be the largest in the Mediterranean region. Athens wants to establish the parks, for the protection of sea mammals and turtles in the Ionian Sea and for seabirds and seals in the Aegean, this year. Mitsotakis said they will help the country meet its global commitment to expand its marine protected areas to 30% of its waters by 2030. "They will allow us to meet the target of protecting 30% of our territorial waters by 2030 way ahead of schedule," Mitsotakis said. "They will be vast sanctuaries for life beneath the waves," he said, adding that trawling of the sea floor will be banned inside the zones. The environmental studies on the parks' boundaries were submitted on Monday for public consultation until September 22. The planned Aegean Sea park has previously stirred up tensions between Greece and its eastern neighbour Turkey, with the two countries at odds over a range of issues including maritime boundaries. Athens has assured that the park's boundaries are within Greece's territorial waters. The Aegean park, at 9,500 square kilometres (km2), will initially expand around the southern Cyclades islands, further south from Turkey, according to the maps Greece submitted on Monday, along with the environmental studies. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia At least 19 killed as Bangladesh air force plane crashes into college campus Singapore Subsidies and grants for some 20,000 people miscalculated due to processing issue: MOH Singapore 2 workers stranded on gondola dangling outside Raffles City Tower rescued by SCDF Business Why Singapore and its businesses stand to lose with US tariffs on the region Singapore NTU introduces compulsory cadaver dissection classes for medical students from 2026 Singapore Fine, driving ban for bus driver who hit lorry, causing fractures to passenger and injuring 16 others Business $1.1 billion allocated to three fund managers to boost Singapore stock market: MAS Singapore Jail for man who conspired with another to bribe MOH agency employee with $18k Paris trip The size of both parks is seen at 27,500 km2, government officials said, and Greece wants to expand them further. When the public consultation ends, the environment ministry will draft two presidential decrees, which will be submitted to the Council of State by end October, the officials added. The parks will be established once the decrees are published. REUTERS
Straits Times
03-07-2025
- Politics
- Straits Times
Crimean Tatars, scarred by past, fear homeland will be ceded to Russia in peace deal
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox FILE PHOTO: Crimean Tatars take part in a pro-Ukranian meeting in the Crimean village of Eskisaray, outside Simferopol, March 14, 2014. The sign reads \"Referendum boycott\". REUTERS/Vasily Fedosenko/File Photo KYIV - When Ukrainian Leniie Umerova crossed into Russia on her way to see her ailing father in their native Crimea in late 2022, she was detained and forced to endure what she calls a "carousel" of charges and prison transfers that lasted nearly two years. The ordeal, which included stints in solitary confinement, crystallised a sense of generational trauma for Umerova, 27, a member of the Crimean Tatar community indigenous to the Black Sea peninsula that was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in 2014. "It was very difficult because I was constantly alone in my cell and they (the Russians) periodically tried to feed me their propaganda," said Umerova, who initially faced administrative charges and later accusations of espionage, which she denied. Umerova had grown up listening to her grandmother's stories of how in 1944 the family, along with hundreds of thousands of other Crimean Tatars, were deported to distant Central Asia on Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's orders for alleged collaboration with the Nazis, even though many Tatars including her great-grandfather were fighting for the Red Army. Thousands died from disease or starvation, and the Tatars were only allowed back to Crimea in the 1980s. Now Umerova fears that Crimea, as part of a final Ukraine peace deal, could be recognised as part of Russia - a scenario that the Trump administration in the United States has signalled is possible. "For so many years now, the same enemy has been doing evil to our family," Umerova said. "If we don't fight now and overcome this, where are the guarantees that my children or my grandchildren won't get the same (treatment)?" Always before her is the example of her grandmother, who refused to speak Russian when Umerova was young and immersed the family in Tatar culture and language. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 193ha of land off Changi to be reclaimed for aviation park; area reduced to save seagrass meadow Singapore PAP questions Pritam's interview with Malaysian podcast, WP says PAP opposing for the sake of opposing Singapore 1 in 4 appeals to waive HDB wait-out period for private home owners approved since Sept 2022 World Liverpool's Portuguese forward Diogo Jota dies in car crash in Spain Singapore Healthcare facility planned for site of Ang Mo Kio Public Library after it moves to AMK Hub Singapore $500 in Child LifeSG credits, Edusave, Post-Sec Education Account top-ups to be disbursed in July Business 60 S'pore firms to get AI boost from Tata Consultancy as it launches new innovation centre here Singapore Scoot launches flights to Da Nang, Kota Bharu and Nha Trang; boosts frequency to other destinations "Whatever happens, we must return to Crimea," was the message. Umerova returned to Kyiv after being released by Russia in a prisoner swap last September, and despite her suffering, she remains hopeful that the Tatars, a Sunni Muslim, Turkic people, will one day be able to live freely again in a Ukrainian Crimea. "Every day, every year... you live with the dream that now, now, now they will deal with this one thing and return Crimea... And so it will be, I am 100% sure of this," she added. RUSSIA WON'T BUDGE But Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that any peace settlement for Ukraine must include recognition of Russian sovereignty over Crimea and four other Ukrainian regions. Moscow denies Kyiv's assertions that it is violating the rights of Tatars and other people in Crimea, which it says is historically Russian. According to the Ukrainian President's Mission in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, some 133 Crimean Tatars are currently illegally imprisoned by Russia. Russia's Foreign Ministry did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. "To give (Crimea to Russia) is to simply spit in their faces," Umerova said of those detained Tatars and of the tens of thousands who continue to live in occupied Crimea. Russia's Foreign Ministry did not respond to a request for comment on this article. At the time of Russia's annexation, Crimean Tatars accounted for around 12 percent of the peninsula's population of some two million. They rejected Russia's occupation and boycotted a referendum at the time, and community leaders estimate that some 50,000 have left since 2014, though most have remained there. Crimean Tatar rights activist and journalist Lutfiye Zudiyeva, who lives there, said Russia had subjected her community to what she called "active assimilation". "Of course, today in Crimea you can sing in Crimean Tatar and dance national dances, but the people have no political agency," she said. Crimea is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine by most countries but U.S. President Donald Trump told Time magazine in April that "Crimea will stay with Russia". Under peace proposals prepared by Trump's envoy, Steve Witkoff, the United States would extend de jure recognition of Moscow's control of the peninsula. However, the two sides have made little progress in peace talks since April. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is trying to resist Trump's pressure to cede territory to Russia as part of any peace settlement, and he has cited Umerova's case as an example of what he says is Moscow's repression of the Crimean Tatars. For Ukrainian singer Jamala, who won the Eurovision Song Contest in 2016 with her song "1944" about Stalin's deportations, any talk of legally recognising Crimea as Russian is "insane". "If a country like America says 'it's no big deal, let's just forget about it and move on', then there are no guarantees in the world," Jamala told Reuters. REUTERS
