The European Union's demands that Turkey cease seismological exploration for hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean in Cyprus- and Greece-claimed territorial waters contradict the international law, Turkish Foreign Minister Hami Aksoy said on Friday
ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 28th August, 2020) The European Union's demands that Turkey cease seismological exploration for hydrocarbons in the Eastern Mediterranean in Cyprus- and Greece-claimed territorial waters contradict the international law, Turkish Foreign Minister Hami Aksoy said on Friday.
Earlier in the day, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell said after an informal summit of EU foreign ministers that Brussels might resort to industry sanctions against Ankara if the talks on the drilling in disputed waters fail.
"The European Union has no right to criticize and demand that Turkey terminate hydrocarbons exploration in its own territorial waters. Neither does the EU has such authority. This demand contradicts the international law," Aksoy said.
According to the statement, the EU's threats to impose sanctions only boost Turkey's determination to continue the drilling.
"If the EU genuinely wants to solve the Eastern Mediterranean issue, it has to be an objective and fair mediator," the statement read.
Turkey's drilling activities in the Eastern Mediterranean have long mired its relations both with Greece and Cyprus, which claim that Ankara has crossed into their exclusive economic zones, and the European Union, as the borders of those two countries are also the EU's own external borders.
The Turkey-Greece tensions exacerbated over the past over the past few weeks as Turkey intensified the drilling closer to the Greek border, ignoring the calls to vacant the disputed waters. Greece mobilized its armed forces and warned it would stand up for its sovereignty by all available means, including military.
