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A growing dispute in the eastern Mediterranean over offshore oil and fuel exploration rights has noted tensions between Turkey and Greece, a regional expert describing the scenario as “the most dangerous” in years.
Turkey and Greece, both NATO members, disagree with competitive demands for energy reserves in the disputed waters of the Mediterranean.
The countries and territories of this region come with Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Libya.
Last week, Turkey sent Oruc Reis, escorted through military missions, to conduct seismic studies in the territory over which Ankara and Athens claim jurisdiction, and is expected to continue to seek potentially lucrative energy reserves until 23 August.
Since then, Greece, a member of the EU, has suggested turkey avoid “illegal” activities, and the deadlock even led to a smaller collision between two frigates this month.France also intervened to criticize Turkey’s “worrying” provocations.
However, Ankara said it would give up protecting its “rights” and has since announced that a separate drilling vessel will seek herbal fuel in The waters of Cyprus in the coming weeks.
“In any case, Turkey will continue to resolutely protect its rights, as well as Turkish Cypriots in the eastern Mediterranean under foreign law,” Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said on Sunday.
“No alliance of malice will be able to avoid this. Those who think otherwise have not learned their classes from history.”
Aksoy also stood out to Armenia for its “ostentatious” comments on tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, shortly after the country reaffirmed its “unconditional support” to Greece and Cyprus.
In reaction to Turkey’s announcement to intensify its search for herbal gas, the European Union said it “unfortunately fueled new tensions and insecurity” in the region.The bloc called for a rapid end to Turkey’s activities in the disputed waters and suggested that Ankara interact in a broad dialogue.
An emergency summit of EU ministers last week prompted EU High Representative Josep Borrell to warn that the “serious deterioration” in relations with Turkey affects the entire bloc “far beyond the eastern Mediterranean.”
Ian Lesser, vice-president of the German Marshall Fund tank in Brussels, told CNBC by phone that Turkey’s “declining conservatism” on the use of force had driven a more assertive regional policy in recent years.
In addition, Lesser said that “paranoia” had driven the country’s political status quo to the behavior of classical allies “with a sense of insecurity.”
“Things can go wrong,” he continued, reflecting on the threat of an escalation of the confrontation between Ankara and Athens.”All parties are aware of the threats, but this is clearly, I would say, the maximum damage we have faced between the two.countries in the region for many years.”
Analysts told CNBC that Turkey’s exclusion from regional progression of security and power alliances around the Mediterranean had left Ankara feeling “increasingly locked up.”
In January 2019, seven ministers of power signed an agreement for the establishment of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, which includes Greece, Cyprus, Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Italy and the Palestinian territories, Turkey was a notable absentee of the group, so it had been described at the time as an “aggressive” fuel drilling crusade in the region.
The U.S. Geological Survey of the U.S. Geological Survey has been in the process of But it’s not the first time Estimated in 2010 that an average of 1.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil and an average of 3.5 trillion cubic meters of recoverable fuel can be discovered in the province of the Levant basin in the eastern Mediterranean.located in the Cypriot and Israeli waters of the eastern Mediterranean.
“Turkey will hesitate to duplicate its strategy for the eastern Mediterranean,” Emre Peker, director of European political threat consulting Eurasia Group, told CNBC by phone.
“Turkey is able to climb because it can do it with Cyprus, and it can do it with Greece.At the moment, he can also do so with France because he knows that France does not have institutional aid from the EU or Berlin to take a more bellicose position,” Peker argued.
“The reasons are two: obviously, the EU is in the grip of the Covid crisis and this year we saw a threat of a resurgence of a migration crisis with (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdogan threatening 3 million refugees.Europe.”
Peker said the EU had responded well to Erdogan’s comments at the time, but that it was little more than a “short-term solution.”
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