The Foreign Policy of PASOK and the Greek–Turkish Crisis in the Aegean (1981–89)

The Aegean Archipelago holds significant importance due to its geographical location in the southeastern Mediterranean, shared by Greece and Turkey. However, international maritime law, both customary and conventional (1982 Montego Bay Convention), assigns most of this area to Greece because of its numerous islands under Greek sovereignty. Turkey, refusing to adhere to these legal frameworks, has opposed a legal resolution to Greek-Turkish political disputes since 1973, creating a broader set of issues that did not exist previously. PASOK, founded after the 1974 regime change (Metapolitefsi), initially held a key opposition role, then became the official opposition, and finally rose to power with a significant majority in the 1981 elections. The party presented its positions at both opposition and governmental levels. This study focuses on the first government under Andreas Papandreou (1981–1989). PASOK’s stance was characterized by consistency, rejecting individual disputes between the two countries and focusing solely on the legal resolution of the Archipelago’s continental shelf delimitation. Therefore, PASOK opposed any form of co-exploitation of underwater natural resources.