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Thread: Greece and Turkey set for showdown over maritime borders

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    Veteran Member Annihilus's Avatar
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    Default Greece and Turkey set for showdown over maritime borders

    Greece and Turkey set for showdown over maritime borders

    Turkey is laying claim to oil exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, and Greece objects.



    Athens, Greece - Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are set to hold a tense meeting on the sidelines of the NATO summit in London on Wednesday, following Ankara's announcement that it had reached an agreement with Libya to delineate their maritime economic interests.

    A map published by Turkey shows the Turkish and Libyan Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ) meeting midway across the Mediterranean, over an area also claimed by Greece.

    "I shall put to President Erdogan all the issues relating to Turkish provocation," Mitsotakis told his colleagues. "We will talk openly. And it is in Turkey's interest to retrench from provocative moves."

    Erdogan was unrelenting: "There is a request from the Greek prime minister for us to meet and we shall discuss these matters in that meeting," he said.

    "But [the Greeks] should be aware that the efforts of Greece, Israel, Egypt and the Greek Cypriots will not stand in the way of the steps we have taken with Libya. We signed the agreement. We will bring it to Parliament, where it will be ratified by a majority and from that point on it will be in force."


    Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt agreed on most of their EEZ boundaries beginning in 2003. Greece dispatched its foreign minister to Cairo on Sunday to speed up an EEZ agreement with Egypt.

    Fishing for hydrocarbons
    "This agreement has been in the works since my days," Dora Bakoyanni - foreign minister from 2004 to 2009 - told Skai radio on Tuesday. "The Egyptians were always hesitant to sign it because they feared what the Turkish reaction would be."

    In 2004, Turkey proposed an EEZ delineation with Egypt similar to that agreed with Libya - a line bisecting the Mediterranean, ignoring Cyprus, which lies between them. Egypt, which had agreed upon boundaries with Cyprus the previous year, declined.

    At stake is more than fishing rights. It is chiefly the ownership of potentially large oil and gas fields.

    Egypt had long been thought to be the only eastern Mediterranean nation with significant hydrocarbon resources. But in 1999, Israel discovered two small fields, Noa and Mari-B. Since then, Israel has discovered more than 35 trillion cubic feet (about one trillion cubic metres) of gas, enough to power the country for a century, and is now an energy exporter.

    Egypt, meanwhile, became energy self-sufficient at the end of 2018, thanks to the discovery of the Zohr gas field, doing away with three billion dollars in annual gas purchases.

    Cyprus has also discovered at least three major fields, while Greece last month ratified exploration concessions for Exxon and Hellenic Petroleum to explore a large area off western Crete, believed to contain large quantities of gas.

    All at sea
    The United States Geological Survey estimates that the Eastern Mediterranean could ultimately yield 350 trillion cubic feet (about 10 trillion cubic metres) of gas and 3.5 billion barrels of oil. That is enough to power the region for decades.

    But Turkey seems to have been left out of this bonanza. Although it has spent more than a billion dollars on exploration vessels in the past decade, it has announced no discoveries. Since late last year, those vessels have been drilling in waters claimed by Cyprus. The US and European Union have declared those explorations illegal.

    Greece and Turkey have never agreed on the delineation of their EEZ, their territorial waters or airspace. Greece is a signatory to the UN International Law of the Sea, which grants islands a continental shelf and EEZ. Turkey does not recognise that Greece's extensive archipelago can have such rights.

    NATO has generally avoided taking a legal or political position on Greek and Turkish sovereignty issues in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean.

    Mitsotakis decries this neutrality. "The tactic of taking equal distances [from Greek and Turkish positions] does a great injustice to our country, which never sought to raise tension in our region," his office said.

    Greece's foreign ministry has summoned Libya's ambassador, demanding he "immediately divulge the contents of the agreement, or the decision will be made to deport him".

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...222939690.html

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    Quote Originally Posted by Annihilus View Post
    Greece and Turkey set for showdown over maritime borders
    A more accurate description would have been "A panicked Sultan has shit his pants because Imamoglou has surpassed him in popularity, but the Turkish companies lack the necessary technology to drill for natural gas and oil, while Cyprus has blocked foreign companies from participating via sanctions, thus nothing is going to happen from the Turkish side anyway - either in Cypriot or in Greek waters.

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    Veteran Member Annihilus's Avatar
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    Greece and Turkey closer to armed conflict, say experts

    Turkey is threatening to send a drilling ship to waters claimed - and defended - by Greece.



    Turkey's Energy Minister Fatih Donmez says a drilling vessel such as the Yavuz will soon head to waters claimed by Greece

    Athens, Greece - Greece and Turkey have come closer to armed conflict after Turkey's surprise delineation of an Exclusive Economic Zone with Libya, experts tell Al Jazeera.

    The agreement, signed on November 27 and unveiled on Thursday, maps out a corridor of water stretching across the eastern Mediterranean between the coasts of Turkey and Libya, cutting across a swath that is also claimed by EU member Greece.

    EEZs allow countries exclusive rights to exploit natural resources including mineral wealth.

    Turkish energy minister Fatih Donmez has announced that, once the agreement is ratified by both sides, Turkish drillships will begin to search there for oil and gas.

    Although the Hellenic Navy neither confirms nor denies it, two experts tell Al Jazeera that Greece has dispatched naval forces to the disputed area southeast of Crete.

    "If a Turkish drillship does show up, our ships would take action against it, and that could lead to an armed confrontation, because these ships are accompanied by naval vessels. And of course that could ultimately lead to war," says a veteran senior diplomat on condition of anonymity.


    International public law professor Angelos Syrigos also confirms that Greek naval forces have been dispatched as a deterrent to Turkish exploration.

    "There will be no Turkish drillship. It has been communicated to Turkey that we shall not tolerate any exploration in the area Greece considers to be its EEZ," says Syrigos, who also serves as an MP for the ruling conservative New Democracy party.

    Greece to go it alone
    "We are preparing for all eventualities on all levels," Greek defence minister Nikos Panayotopoulos told Skai News on Thursday, without elaborating. The navy's chief of staff, Admiral Nikos Tsounis, added: "We shall not wait for anyone to come and help us. Whatever we do, we shall do alone."

    A meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on the sidelines of a NATO summit on Wednesday produced no breakthrough.

    "It was an open and honest discussion that did not reach agreement on any subject raised," government sources told Al Jazeera, saying the topics included increased refugee flows from Turkey to Europe via Greece.

    "There was agreement to continue confidence-building measures, and for both sides not to inflame the climate, but to keep the dialogue open," the source said.

    Greece and Turkey have followed a series of confidence-building measures since 1987, when they nearly came to war over hydrocarbon exploration in the Aegean. These include avoiding military exercises during the summer tourist season, establishing a direct line between the chairmen of the joint chiefs and defence ministers, and inviting officers from the other side to attend wargames. Not all measures have been observed. For a period during 2017-18, for example, the direct telephone line between the military chiefs was reportedly defunct.

    'Room for agreement'
    "I did not leave the meeting with the impression that I was talking to people who simply showed up to speak their piece and leave without there being some room for agreement," said Panayotopoulos. "I believe there is room for agreement, as long as people are well disposed. We showed a good disposition, but I did not see the same on the Turkish side."

    In a related development on Thursday, Cypriot President Nikos Anastasiadis said his country would petition the international court at the Hague to defend it from Turkish explorations in the Cypriot EEZ.

    Since last year, four Turkish exploration vessels have been looking for oil and gas in waters delimited by Cyprus as its EEZ in a series of international treaties with neighbours.

    The EU and US have called Turkey's exploration in the Cyprus-declared EEZ illegal, and called on Ankara to stop. Syrigos believes the Turkish-Libyan agreement will be submitted to the UN as a way of addressing that issue.

    "Turkey had absolutely no legal basis for its [hydrocarbon] explorations in the eastern Mediterranean," Syrigos says. "Now it acquires a legal basis, albeit an illegal one."

    He believes the move is also designed to pre-empt the Greek and Cypriot EEZs from surrounding it. "It creates a wall that cuts Greece off from extending itself into the eastern Mediterranean," he says.

    Unlike Cyprus, however, Greece has not delimited its EEZ. "We haven't submitted coordinates to show where our interests end in the eastern Mediterranean," says a Greek international relations expert on condition of anonymity. "How much [maritime space] are the Turks taking from us? We haven't submitted that," he says.

    "The European Union stands in full solidarity with Greece and Cyprus regarding recent actions by Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean, including the Aegean Sea," the European External Action Service (EEAS) said in a statement on Wednesday. "Turkey needs to respect the sovereignty and the sovereign rights of all EU member states," it said.

    Israel, which has formed an energy alliance with Cyprus, Greece and Egypt, and some of whose gas fields are being developed by a Greek company, also issued a statement on social media. "Israel reiterates its full support and solidarity with Greece in its maritime zones and its opposition to any attempt to violate these rights. Israel attaches great importance to its partnership with Greece," the statement read.

    https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/...214345751.html

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    So tell me. If you may. Is this action by Erdogan a source of pride for the majority of the Turkish populace? I personally think so. How do they view this?

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    Quote Originally Posted by Dianatomia View Post
    So tell me. If you may. Is this action by Erdogan a source of pride for the majority of the Turkish populace? I personally think so. How do they view this?
    My view is that even the Turks that are passionately against Erdogan are behind him on this issue. So it would be false to describe this as a Erdogan action but more as a collective Turkish one.

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    We need to make War with Turkey , its not other way to stop their stealing.
    This country is a terrorist country in the region of SE Mediterranean.

    This war would destroy completely both countries economically but its not other way,
    we cant let them steal all the time

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    Quote Originally Posted by Annihilus View Post
    My view is that even the Turks that are passionately against Erdogan are behind him on this issue. So it would be false to describe this as a Erdogan action but more as a collective Turkish one.
    My sentiments exactly. And worrying. Since Turks as a whole have a very low sense of justice. Ideals such as Liberty, Equality, Fraternity have little value for Turks. But if the world did not uphold international law, then it would mean that the biggest and strongest always had their way. It would become a world of pirates where the bigger fish eats the smaller fish. In any case, this may become nasty.

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    Quote Originally Posted by DarknessWin View Post
    We need to make War with Turkey , its not other way to stop their stealing.
    This country is a terrorist country in the region of SE Mediterranean.

    This war would destroy completely both countries economically but its not other way,
    we cant let them steal all the time
    What are you talking about? Politically, this move was a blunder on the part of Turkey if Greece acts right.

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    The barking dogs continues to bark.

    Turks need to stop barking and start biting because you are boring us.
    “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Eph. 6:12

    Definition of untrustworthy and loose character are those that don't believe in God.


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    Quote Originally Posted by DarknessWin View Post
    We need to make War with Turkey , its not other way to stop their stealing.
    This country is a terrorist country in the region of SE Mediterranean.

    This war would destroy completely both countries economically but its not other way,
    we cant let them steal all the time
    Agree. Η ταν η επι τας. Send the anatolian turks back to kazakhstan.

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