Never as much as today has Turkey been engaged in so many military operations at the same time. The Turkish army is present in Syria, maneuvering in Libya, in perpetual incursion into northern Iraq. Its ships are fueling tensions with Greece and Cyprus in the Mediterranean, its fighter planes fly low over the islands of the Aegean on a daily basis.
Recently, the government sided with Azerbaijan in the war led by this former Soviet republic against the Armenian separatists for control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, saying it favored a solution of force in the talks. Drones and frigates have replaced diplomacy.
Indifferent to the warnings of the European Union, Turkey has redeployed its ships in the eastern Mediterranean, where it is demanding a new division of maritime borders, as well as access to gas fields recently discovered in deep water.
Placed under military escort, these new prospecting missions risk rekindling tensions in this part of the Mediterranean, where Greece and Turkey – two members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization – almost came to blows for a while. summer. Thursday, October 15, France and Germany gave Turkey a week to withdraw its ships, under penalty of sanctions.
Disappointed hopes for relaxation
After sowing discord all summer with its surveys in Greek and Cypriot territorial waters, Turkey had ended up recalling two of its ships to port. The European Union (EU), in solidarity with Greece and Cyprus, who are members, believed to see the beginnings of a de-escalation. The withdrawal had taken place just before the European summit of 1er and October 2, focused on the crisis in the Mediterranean.
Ankara’s main trading partner, the EU hoped that the proposals offered at the summit, namely the modernization of the customs union treaty, the simplification of visa procedures for Turkish nationals wishing to travel to Europe, new allocations for Syrian refugees hosted on Turkish soil would be more attractive than the threat of sanctions. The aim was to encourage Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to start talks with Greece and Cyprus.
This hope faded on Monday with the redeployment of the ship Oruç-Reis, off Kastellorizo, the easternmost of the Dodecanese Islands, followed by news that the ship Yavuz He too would resume his prospecting mission off the coast of Cyprus, the divided Mediterranean island.
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