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POLICY that unjustly encroaches on its own exclusive The crisis has split members of the NATO
economic zone. alliance and in a phone call with Turkish
Turkey and Greece raise each sought to bolster their territorial claims President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday,
In recent months, Turkey and Greece have
alliance chief Jens Stoltenberg urged “dialogue
the stakes in the Eastern by drawing up exclusive maritime economic and de-escalation”.
zones with Libya and Egypt, respectively.
The EU warned Turkey on Friday that it
Mediterranean The E.U. has stood firmly behind Greece and could face new sanctions if tensions do not
defuse. “The fact that the EU is appealing for
last July sanctioned Turkey for carrying out
Tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean have seismic surveys off the north Cypriot coast. It dialogue on the one hand and at the same
been simmering for a while, but during the has repeatedly warned Turkey against carrying time making other plans reflects a lack of
past week, the taps have been turned up a out further exploration. sincerity,” Oktay said. “Turkey will not hesitate
notch or two Beyond immediate territorial concerns, to defend its interests.” he added
The visual side of the issue came the dispute draws in historical grievances and The Eastern Mediterranean has become
when Turkey intercepted six Greek F-16 contemporary military strategy. They include an increasingly crowded space, between
fighter jets as they took off from Crete and the conflicted status of Cyprus, the wars precarious refugee crossings from Libya to
headed towards Southern Cyprus. The in Libya and Syria, and the ongoing power Europe, the flow of arms and mercenaries in
Turkish navy also announced plans to hold struggles in the region as U.S. influence wanes. the other direction, and Russia’s new naval
gunnery exercises close to the boundary An increasingly agitated Germany said hub at the Syrian port of Tartus.
of its territorial waters in the northeast ahead of an EU foreign ministers’ meeting on So when a Turkish seismic vessel began
Mediterranean during the present week. the crisis in Berlin that both countries had carrying out surveys in waters where Greece
Turkey’s defence minister said that the to end their naval manoeuvres if they really also claims jurisdiction, shadowed by Turkish
shooting drills were not linked to the growing wanted a peaceful solution to the dispute. warships, it added another dangerous element
tensions with Greece and others. The two “The preconditions for (direct to the mix.
NATO members have been staging rival war negotiations) are that these manoeuvres in the Since it began in mid-August, Turkey’s
games in a conflict that could imperil Europe’s eastern Mediterranean are stopped,” German drilling program, and the gunboat diplomacy
access to vast new energy deposits and further Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said after that has followed, has contributed to a
destabilise war-torn Libya and parts of the completing a failed round of diplomacy in situation so volatile German foreign minister
Middle East. Athens and Ankara this week. Heiko Maas on Tuesday warned: “any small
The Turkish navy also said it was Greece also accused Turkish jets of an spark could lead to catastrophe.” It has
prolonging the stay of the Oruc Reis research incursion as the two sides come to blows over prompted Turkey to announce new live-fire
vessel and its accompanying warships in a longstanding dispute of maritime rights military drills to be held off Cyprus’s northern
waters claimed by Greece by an extra five days and gas resources. Greece has also angered coast next week, with Greece planning rival
to Tuesday. Turkey with plans to expand its coastal zone navy exercises with France, Cyprus, and Italy.
The background to this tense state of into the Ionian Sea by six nautical miles under The dispute has divided EU leaders over how
affairs is that Greece and Turkey have international maritime law. to manage Turkey and drawn in states as far-
competing claims to the same parts of the “You think we would accept such a thing?” flung as Egypt and the UAE.
eastern Mediterranean Sea and are at odds Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Saturday, in Meanwhile, Egypt earlier in August signed
over the potentially abundant gas reserves reference to Athens’s maritime border plans. an accord with Greece on the development
and maritime rights. The two countries have “If this is not casus belli, then what is it?” he of a joint maritime economic zone that
overlapping claims to these areas of gas-rich said using a Latin term for an act or event Turkey claims is “null and void.” Egyptian
waters. Greece’s position is that each of its used to provoke or justify war. leader Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi has threatened
islands—and there are thousands of them—is The Greek foreign ministry said in a to intervene militarily in Libya against
entitled to its own continental shelf with statement on Saturday: “We urge Turkey Turkey. The UAE – which has deployed
exclusive drilling rights. But Turkey says that to understand that the international law is U.S. manufactured warplanes in Libya –
is an unfair interpretation of international law binding for all countries of the world.” reportedly sent four F16s to Crete last week to

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 35 02•September•2020