Hello everyone, welcome back again with us at Military TV. In this episode, we are going to
talk about Greece and Turkey's Mediterranean Standoff which is becoming a global issue.
Turkey and Greece as two NATO allies are at odds with one another in the eastern Mediterranean.
The tension has escalated as a result of provocative displays on both sides.
Greece’s latest move has been to conduct a four-day naval exercise near Crete.
Turkey, meanwhile, has extended its seismic survey operations, deploying a research ship
in the same disputed region around Crete. The two neighbors have seen frequent flare-ups,
but this latest spat over gas reserves and maritime rights has prompted fears that tensions
could escalate further. Because of this tension,
It leads us to ask the question, What’s at stake in the eastern Mediterranean?
After the recent discovery of hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean by Turkey and
the neighboring Greece, tensions began to escalate between the two rivaling countries.
While Turkey declared that it would not back down, Greece said the entire hydrocarbon
region belongs to it a claim rejected by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Discoveries of energy resources off the coasts of Israel, Cyprus and Egypt boost the potential
of the eastern Mediterranean. The discovery of a massive gas field off Egypt’s coast in 2015,
in particular, has raised the possibility of exporting regional energy to Europe.
Conflicting sovereignty claims over the waters of the eastern Mediterranean have therefore
caused a rather tense political environment. New regional alliances have been sprouting
with these energy reserves in mind. An initial agreement between Greece, Cyprus, Italy and Israel
on the East-Med Pipeline Project transformed into a Forum with the involvement of Egypt,
Jordan and Palestine. But Turkey, Lebanon and Syria have found themselves excluded.
So, when a Turkish seismic vessel began carrying out surveys in waters where Greece also claims
jurisdiction, shadowed by Turkish warships, it added another dangerous element to the mix.
France and Cyprus have openly stated to back Greece in the conflict;
Paris has dispatched its two Rafale fighter jets as a show of solidarity with Greece.
Meanwhile, Greece planned of conducting naval exercises with France, Cyprus and Italy. Egypt
and the UAE, two distant countries, too have swung into action the UAE has reportedly sent
its F-16s to take part in military drills with the Greek military, and Egypt has finalized with
Greece its maritime boundaries, extending the latter’s maritime sphere by 12 nautical miles.
The conflict has put NATO in a tight corner while threatening to trigger a massive clash
between Turkey and its allies, the gravity of the situation can be gauged from the warning
from German foreign minister Heiko Maas. He said that “any small spark could lead to
catastrophe” and from President Erdogan‘s resolve of making “no concessions on that which is ours.”
These escalating tensions between the two NATO members are not unfounded: both claim the areas
of gas rich waters in the eastern Mediterranean. Greece claims that each island (numbering in
thousands) is its own and it has exclusive drilling rights in the islands. This claim
is backed by the European Union which last year sanctioned Turkey for conducting survey off the
north Cypriot coast; besides, it has several times warned Ankara against doing further exploration.
In recent months, Turkey and Greece have each looked for strengthening their territorial claims
by drawing up exclusive maritime economic zones. In addition to these territorial claims,
what other factors are worsening relations? Chief among them are the conflicted status of
Cyprus, the wars in Libya and Syria and the power game in the region. The decreasing influence of
the United States in the region is another key factor for the escalating tensions between Ankara
and Athens. Both sides are seeking an upper hand in the regional struggle for influence.
Relations further soured in July over the re-conversion of Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia into
a mosque. That revived a centuries-long dispute over one of the world’s most contested religious
buildings and irked Russia and Greece, the centers of Orthodox Christianity. Another major cause of
tension between the two countries is the movement of migrants from the Middle East to Europe.
Turkey hosts nearly four million migrants and refugees. In February, thousands of asylum seekers
crossed over into Greece, leading to a tough response from Athens. The response included using
violence against the asylum seekers, human rights groups criticized the move; on the other hand,
allowing the refugees to cross over was seen as Turkey’s attempt to use it as a bargaining device.
And most recently, Erdogan government announced to reconvert Chora church into a mosque. Greece
accuses the Turkish president of advancing a “neo-ottoman” strategy in the Eastern
Mediterranean as part of an “attempt to implement expansionist aims against neighbors and allies.”
But while acting to emulate the erstwhile Ottoman Empire, president Erdogan can not sideline the
fact that this policy alienates Turkey’s allies and isolates it in the region. No Arab country
has backed his recent moves, signaling that they disapprove the Turkish premier’s policies.
His pro-Palestine stance (criticizing the Abraham Accord) has not won him Arab countries’ sympathy
in the wider region. The adversarial position taken by the UAE against Turkey, as it showed
through its dispatch of fighter jets to take part in drills with the Greek military, can be seen
as Ankara’s dwindling influence in the region. So, we can draw two main points from this issue.
First Greece and Turkey have endured plenty of incidents that brought them to the brink of war,
particularly in the Aegean Sea, but these were eased through dialogue and mediation.
There is no dialogue mechanism established for a conflict over the eastern Mediterranean
and that really matters in this conflict-ridden region.
Germany is calling for a new dialogue but neither Turkey nor Greece seem ready to make concessions
and return pragmatism yet. Second, war between Greece and Turkey as two NATO members in the
Mediterranean would be a disaster, though both sides seek to hold negotiations to deescalate
tensions, the point of concern is the continuing brinkmanship threatening of accidental escalation.