Turkey Drafts Maritime Law as Erdoğan, Trump Reset Syria File

Turkey's day was framed by the run-up to the July NATO summit in Ankara, with three different files moving at three different speeds.

The most consequential was the draft 'Maritime Jurisdiction Areas Law' first unveiled on May 12 by Mustafa Başkara, head of the Maritime Law Research Centre at Ankara University, and politically backed by Çağrı Erhan, deputy chair of the Turkish Presidency's Security and Foreign Policy Board. Foreign Affairs and National Defence ministries also contributed technical input. The bill is expected to reach parliament after the nine-day Eid holiday, with rare cross-party backing — the opposition CHP has supported the framework — and the AK Party government has signalled it would prefer to legislate before the NATO summit on July 7–8 rather than after. According to drafter Yücel Acer, the text does not use the phrase "Blue Homeland," contains no maps, does not enumerate any "152 islands," does not address "grey zones" or sovereignty, and is framework legislation that codifies existing maritime jurisdiction including the exclusive economic zone. Athens, however, is concerned about provisions formally authorising the president on other maritime-law matters, and on a May 17 Turkish-Greek Forum visit to Athens Greek officials repeatedly pressed on "why now?" — and on Ankara's failure to consult before publication. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis appears to be trying to keep temperature down: he ordered the withdrawal of two Patriot batteries from the Aegean islands that had previously drawn Turkish complaints, a move Turkish observers read as a quiet effort to defuse the immediate flashpoint while still preserving a domestic "threat-from-Turkey" narrative.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan held a phone call with U.S. President Donald Trump covering Syria, Lebanon and the NATO summit. Erdoğan praised the extension of the Iran ceasefire as a positive development; both leaders discussed bilateral ties and regional stability ahead of the Ankara meeting. The call sits within a wider Turkish foreign-policy push this month: Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan visited London last month and Berlin earlier this week, and Erdoğan held a separate phone call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the same day as the NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Sweden. Ankara's "active neutrality" through both the Russia–Ukraine war and the U.S./Israel–Iran war is, in the Turkish commentary, strengthening NATO's more European posture even as France and Greece work to slow it.

On press freedom, Deutsche Welle correspondent Alican Uludag — in pre-trial detention since February 19 on charges of insulting President Erdoğan, with 22 social media posts forming the basis of the case — will appear before a Turkish court for the first time on Thursday, via video link. His arrest has drawn criticism from European press-freedom groups and from German officials, and the trial timing — during a period when Ankara is courting European partners ahead of the NATO summit — will be closely watched. The case fits inside the wider debate over judicial reform that Turkish columnists argue Ankara would need to undertake to convert NATO-summit momentum into a serious EU re-engagement, alongside a parliamentary settlement of the Kurdish question through PKK disarmament — the "Terror-Free Turkey" track.