Turkey Faces Backlash over Mediterranean Drilling Activities

Greece claims Turkish exploration breached its exclusive economic zone. (Pikist)

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on September 17 formally condemning Turkey’s drilling and exploration of natural gas deposits in the Mediterranean Sea and expressing solidarity with Greece and Cyprus. The leaders also urged Turkey to end “nationalistic warmongering rhetoric,” and thet indicated a willingness to impose sanctions should Turkey decide to not cooperate.

While tensions regarding claims to Mediterranean natural gas deposits have existed for decades, concerns escalated recently after Turkey sent two seismic exploration ships in search of natural gas near the Greek island of Kastellorizo. Moreover, Turkey expanded its reach in the Mediterranean through a maritime delimitation agreement with Libya, granting Turkey drilling rights along the Libyan coast and in territory which Greece considers within its exclusive economic zone. 

In response to criticism by Greek leadership, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that “Greece’s attitude in the Aegean and the Mediterranean is malicious” and that French President Emmanuel Macron’s support toward Greece and Cyprus “provok[es]” the nations into taking “wrongful steps.”

One ship returned to Turkey in an act praised by the European Parliament as progress toward deescalation, yet Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu claimed that this occurred for maintenance reasons and that exploration in the Mediterranean remains within the government’s legal rights. 

After the vessel’s return, however, Turkish presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalın stated that “the climate has become much more suitable for negotiations to begin.” While Greece and Cyprus called on EU leaders to institute sanctions, Turkey maintained that the threat of sanctions would not produce diplomatic results if all parties still intended to negotiate.

Exploratory talks between Ankara and Athens began in 2002 but halted in 2016 due to domestic instability in Greece’s Syriza-led government and backlash over Turkish escalation in the region. Kalın stated that Turkey’s drilling activities in the past responded to “activities violating our sovereignty rights in our continental shelf.” Nonetheless, Kalın reaffirmed Turkey’s relationship with France, who would likely lead diplomatic dialogues with Greece and Cyprus. 

Debates over sanctioning Turkey could hold wider implications for the European Union’s potential response to Eastern European instability, particularly in Belarus regarding President Alexander Lukashenko’s alleged election fraud. Cyprus has threatened to veto any sanctions in the absence of similar action against Turkey. The island nation also criticized the European Union’s choice to impose soft sanctions on Turkey for drilling in Cyprus’s Exclusive Economic Zone rather than instituting stricter penalties.