The Turkish drilling rig in the eastern Mediterranean, the geopolitical dispute between Turkey-Greece and Cyprus, but also the powerless position of Brussels vis-à-vis Erdogan in the press.
THE Turkey re-sends a drilling rig to the eastern Mediterranean, thus putting on the agenda a new dispute with Hellascomments on an article on Süddeutsche Zeitung. As he observes, “the two NATO member states have been arguing for years over the ownership and mining rights of the mineral resources on the seabed.”
According to his statements Turku Minister of Energy, Fatih Donmezthe rig will begin operations at “Blue Homeland”a term which, as the Munich newspaper points out, is politically charged “as Turkey uses him to express its claims to large parts of the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean. (…) Turkey considers that its right to a possible exploitation (of the natural resources in the Aegean) is hindered because Greece, relying even on tiny, uninhabited rocky islands, has demarcated its borders around its islands against Turkey. However, the maritime borders of Greece, as an EU member state, are internationally recognized. Athens – unlike Ankara – is also a signatory to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), which establishes the legal framework for activities in marine waters and oceans.” Turkey, however, has never joined the convention and does not feel bound by it, the publication adds characteristically, adding that “Cyprus is also part of this Greek-Turkish dispute, as there are natural gas deposits around the divided Mediterranean island. There the Republic of Cyprus, a member state of the EU, and Turkey, as well as the northern part of Cyprus occupied by Turkey in 1974, are fighting over access rights. However, the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” is recognized as a state only by Ankara”.
Dissatisfaction is growing in Brussels
The newspaper Handelsblatt focuses on another aspect: Him irritation of Brussels against Erdogan’s moves. Referring to the position of the EU, however, she emphasizes that “The balance is delicate, as relations between Turkey and the EU are already problematic. In Brussels, the resentment against Erdogan seems to be growing for weeks. Not only his challenges to Greece and Cyprus, but also his rapprochement with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and other authoritarian leaders seem to anger the partners.”
Nevertheless, as the newspaper reports “There are several reasons why an EU and US backlash against the NATO partner and EU candidate is unlikely: Turkey’s importance is now too great for a hard backlash against it. Furthermore, EU foreign ministers are not due to meet again until the end of August. Therefore, no European response to Erdogan’s antics is expected before this meeting. The Turkish leader knows very well that he has a free hand from the West, which could ignite further tensions against the EU in the coming months and ahead of crucial elections in his country.”.
According to the correspondents of the newspaper in Brussels and Constantinople, “Discussions about Erdoğan’s harassment take place only in closed circles and are reproduced in Ankara through low diplomatic channels. Publicly, however, the Commission and the member states keep a fishy silence. The reason is that a public rebuke would hardly make an impression on the Turkish president – something that would in turn underline how powerless Brussels is.”
DW / Chrysa Vakhcevanou
Read the News today and get the latest news. Follow us on Google News and be the first to learn all the news from Skai.gr.
