BRUSSELS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th August, 2020) Turkey, which already has rather complicated relations with its European partners, is worsening the situation further by repeatedly opening its borders with Greece and Bulgaria, as well as escalating the row over maritime rights in the eastern Mediterranean.
TENSIONS WITHIN NATO OVER RUSSIA'S S-400 AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM
Turkey, which has the second-largest army within NATO after the US, triggered a strong backlash among its European partners when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan decided to purchase the Russian S-400 air defense system, while still being a NATO member, with US atomic bombs stocked at the Incirlik airbase.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg desperately tried to settle the dispute by repeating that the unity of the alliance was not in question. However, the fact that NATO, claiming for years that Russia is the enemy, sees one of its "heavy" members buying military equipment from Russia, is a little strange, to say the least, and for many, Turkey deserves expulsion from the alliance.
Since 2018, the United States has introduced a number of measures to pressure the Turkish government into canceling the S-400 purchase, including removing Turkey from the F-35 aircraft supply chain despite the added costs to the program. In addition, earlier this week, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jim Risch told Defense news that he would not support arms sales to Turkey until the issues surrounding Ankara's purchase of S-400 were resolved.
TURKEY'S RELATIONS WITH GREECE AND CYPRUS
Turkey's relations with its NATO ally Greece are at their worst for decades, with Athens accusing Ankara of over the aggressive attitude of the Turkish navy regarding Greek boats and the Turkish air force invading Greek air space by overflying the Greek islands of the Aegean Sea in a show of force.
As for Cyprus, Ankara has started exploring in its territorial waters for gas without consulting the authorities of the islands� and the EU or other countries of the region, while protecting the exploration vessels in another show of force. Cyprus has been divided in two Turkey's invasion in the north of the island in 1974 and the ensuing secession of the Turkish-speaking northern region � the self-proclaimed Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus � on November 15, 1983.
Tensions between the two NATO allies over the drilling in the Mediterranean increased have been brewing for many months and got a new impetus last week after Greece and Egypt signed a maritime deal on an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) in the eastern Mediterranean. Ankara then slammed the agreement as "null and void," saying that Athens and Cairo share no sea border, and claimed that the area of the EEZ was in fact located on Turkey's continental shelf. The Greece-Egypt deal prompted Turkey to resume seismic research in the eastern Mediterranean. Athens responded by putting its armed forces on alert.
Turkey, on the other hand, signed an agreement with similar provisions with Libya last year to appropriate a lion's portion of the Mediterranean waters that Greece considers part of its exclusive economic zone. Greece has slammed Turkey's modified map of maritime borders as an infringement on its sovereign rights.
TURKEY'S ALARMING BEHAVIOR IN SEA EXPLORATION
Ankara believes that its oil drilling activities in the Mediterranean waters are in accordance with international law and that its ally, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, should receive part of the profits and have the right to drill. In January, the Republic of Cyprus accused Ankara of "piracy" over repeated drilling in what it considers to be its exclusive economic zone.
"The right of the sea is governed by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 1982 (known as 'Montego Bay' convention). This Convention grants coastal states the possibility of declaring an exclusive economic zone (EEZ). This amounts in practice to shifting the borders of a country on the high seas. It has been a game changer in energy since often these maritime territories conceal hydrocarbons. This is the case of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, which has become in a few years 'a new Norway' in the south-east of the EU because from this area will flow new gas supplies for the EU and other major consumers," Samuel Furfari, an energy specialist from the ULB university in Brussels, told Sputnik.
According to the specialist, Turkey cannot tolerate not being part of this new gas group. Within the context, Ankara announced last December it had signed a maritime space sharing agreement with the UN-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) in Libya.
"Anyone who looks at a map of the area can see that between Turkey and Libya, there is the island of Crete, some other Greek islands but also Cyprus. Maritime continuity between Turkey and Libya is therefore impossible. Unlike Greece, the EU, the United States, Russia, Egypt, Israel and even the government of eastern Libya of General [Khalifa] Haftar, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his sudden ally Fayez el-Sarraj, the head of the Tripoli national agreement government, seem to be the only ones to think that there is a maritime continuity, within the meaning of the Convention on the law of the sea, between Turkey and Libya," Furfari noted.
The professor added that the only link between these two countries was historical, as Libya had been part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912.
TURKEY-FRANCE TENSIONS OVER LIBYA, GAS EXPLORATION IN MEDITERRANIAN
One of the latest issues piling up between Erdogan's Turkey and the EU and NATO is the situation in Libya, which was plunged into a brutal civil war after the ouster and assassination of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Today, Libya is divided between two centers of power � an elected parliament in the country's east, supported by the Libyan National Army (LNA), led by Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and the GNA in the west, headed by Fayez Sarraj.
In January, an international conference on Libya was held in Berlin, where participating countries have agreed to respect the arms embargo as a measure of non-interference in the Libyan civil conflict. To enforce the embargo, the European navies have launched Operation Irini. On June 16, French frigate Courbet tried to stop and check a cargo ship when accompanying Turkish frigates illuminated the French vessel with their shooting radars, which is the ultimate threat at sea short of launching of missiles. French Minister of the Armed Forces Florence Parly described it as an extremely aggressive act, adding Paris cannot accept that an ally behaves like this.
In addition, Germany, France and Italy plan to push ahead with a bid to use European Union sanctions to stem the continuing supply of arms to war-torn Libya. The three European countries have listed companies and individuals providing ships, aircraft or other logistics for the transport of weapons to Libya, in violation of the United Nations embargo that has been in place since 2011. Three companies from Turkey, Jordan and Kazakhstan as well as individuals from Libya are involved.
"Nothing is holding Erdogan back. He feels so strong that he thinks he can afford any extravagance. He does what he wants despite international law. Its transformation of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul into a mosque took place on the 100th anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, which organized the end of the Ottoman Empire. This is a clear message; Erdogan sees himself as the restorer of the Caliphate. France is right to raise the tone," Samuel Furfari told Sputnik.
At the same time, the specialist said that Europe was behaving "in a ridiculous way." According to Furfari, Turkey's EU accession talks should be immediately ceased, while the Turkish government should be threatened with economic sanctions.
"It is only because Turkey is a member of NATO so far that the situation has not worsened too much. But that is enough," Furfari concluded.
Apart from the Libyan issue, tensions have been high between Turkey and France over Ankara's claims to natural gas reserves in the Mediterranean. French President Emmanuel Macron's office said that France would "temporarily reinforce the presence of its military [over unilateral gas explorations by Turkey] to monitor the situation in the region and mark its determination to uphold international law."
Geopolitical analyst and writer Alexandre del Valle, who specializes in the middle East and Turkey, told Sputnik that Ankara was "too smart to attack the French navy," when asked if the situation could rapidly become dangerous in the Eastern Mediterranean with the arrival of the French navy.
"Macron is right and wants to dissuade the great Turk from entering into open confrontation with the EU. In addition, France has a defence alliance with Cyprus. The (Greek) Cypriots are counting on France which will honour its commitments. And then it is not just Turkey that is prospecting for gas. The French giant Total is present in the same waters, as American companies which drill in the region," del Valle said.
According to the specialist, a complete closure to Turkey's membership in the bloc would not have much effect, as "everyone now knows that the Turks will never enter the EU."
Del Valle recalled that after the destruction of a Russian plane on the Syrian border, Russian President Vladimir Putin reacted very quickly and brought Turkey to its knees in terms of tourism or construction contracts. Then, Erdogan immediately backed down since the two countries have gas pipeline interests in common.
