During the summer, the tension in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea began to move out of control and out of diplomatic context, respectively. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is trying in every way to reject any mediators’ attempts at dialogue with Greece, believing that if he does a hot episode, he will be able to sit at the table of talks from a position of strength.
At the same time, Greece makes it a necessary condition to unblock and stop any provocative action to agree to discuss with Turkey.
by T.C.
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Turkey and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
Because of Turkey’s inability, and always under international law, to go into any hydrocarbon exploitation in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea region, it is trying in every way to illegally attack specific maritime areas.
Turkey’s economic weakness forces it to look for key raw materials for its economy such as oil and gas beyond its legitimate land and sea borders. This search is carried out illegally in both the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and Northern Iraq, Syria, and Libya.
Photo by the website www.dailysabah.com
The Turkish President’s insistence on defying everyone and everything, especially the West, lies in the fact that he wants to make the most of the “political” vacuum in the US because of the November elections, and given that US President Donald Trump is campaigning, all he does not want in the middle of an election season is the collapse of NATO’s European East-South Wing.
In addition, another key factor is the EU’s apparent inability to draw a single political line on this issue.
Moreover, Turkey wants to make the most of the set of leading political presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel and any anxiety of the German government not to inflate the existing the migration problem which, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, is in recession.
In fact, Turkey is under pressure from a lack of time, since after the American elections in November 2020 it will know how far it can go.
EU and Greece in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea
The EU’s weakness lies in the fact that it has not at least so far clarified a structured relationship with Turkey. For this reason, because the EU has a large web of trade interdependence with Turkey (Germany’s exports to Turkey alone reach €20bn a year) it uses a combination of incentives and threatened sanctions to make Turkey more associated.
At the same time, Turkey is a necessary partner of the EU in the fields of energy, security, and migration flows.
Contrary to Turkey’s strategy, it is Greece’s EU member country strategy that tries to win or lengthen the time available so that over time and any change of scenery it does not have to make hasty decisions.
Turkey will remain in American political planning even if the current resident of the White House changes. On the other hand, Greece hopes that the likely new resident of the White House can make US foreign policy in the region more predictable.
The flags present the forces deployed in the sea
Photo by the website www.defenceredifed.com.cy
For this reason, the Greek government is accelerating its actions in both the diplomatic and military sectors. This has been achieved through its agreements on the demarcation of maritime zones with Italy (EU member country), Albania, Egypt and in the future with Cyprus (EU member country) and Libya but also with military drills with the above countries and France (EU member country).
At the military level, the performance and reaction of the Hellenic Armed Forces are exceptional. We must not miss the fact that Greece’s armed forces, because of their chronic alertness to Turkey’s challenges, are the EU’s most ready-made armed forces.
Greece’s armed forces have achieved their goals of completely cancelling any military crisis plans Turkey has tried to implement in the region.
Turkey knows that any war with Greece will have to bear a heavy cost. So, it is the Hellenic Armed Forces that have gained the necessary time to demonstrate to the world that Turkey is responsible for the crisis.
USA and Eastern Mediterranean Sea
Although the US Congress wants and has voted to impose sanctions against Turkey due to the purchase and procurement of the Russian S400 anti-missile/anti-aircraft system, US President Donald Trump has not proceeded to impose these sanctions on the grounds of Turkey’s usefulness in terms of American political planning in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East region equally (please read the analysis titled “Future Trends in the Middle East and the Eastern Meditteranean“).
If the US had proceeded to impose these sanctions, Turkey would have stopped creating geopolitical tensions.
