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Turkey Should Declare Its Exclusive Economic Zone in East Med As Soon As Possible – Sputnik Sputnik: You are known by the concept of ‘Blue Homeland’. Can you explain this concept? What is Blue Homeland? While the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) gives limited sovereignty rights to states, based on the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) concept, how will Turkey make…

A special advisor to the European Union has told Greece to stop its so-called “macho politics.” Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome based Istituto Affari Internazionali, an Honorary Professor at the University of Tübingen, and more importantly, a special adviser to European Union Minister for Foreign Affairs Josep Borrell, made the outrageous comments on Twitter on Tuesday. “The [East Mediterranean] situation is not new….

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Syria’s foreign minister accused Turkey on Saturday of being “one of the main sponsors of terror” in his country and the region, and said it is guilty of “a war crime and a crime against humanity” for cutting water to more than a dozen towns that resisted Turkish occupation. In unusually harsh language, Walid al-Moallem said “the Turkish regime reigns…

NATO’s chief said Thursday that alliance members Greece and Turkey have agreed to start “technical talks” to reduce the risks of military “incidents and accidents” in the eastern Mediterranean, where the two are locked in a tense standoff over offshore energy rights. But Athens quickly denied any such agreement, saying neighboring Turkey must first withdraw its ships from the area where it is carrying…

BRUSSELS/ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Greece and Turkey have agreed to talks to avoid accidental clashes in the Eastern Mediterranean, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, part of efforts to defuse the worsening dispute over energy resources in the region. Germany is also leading a diplomatic push for broader dialogue and German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan by video conference. “Following…

Turkey has announced that Russia will hold live-fire naval exercises in the eastern Mediterranean, amid escalating tensions between Turkey and its coastal neighbours Greece and Cyprus over rights to search for energy resources in the region. The navigational notice issued late Wednesday said the Russian exercises will take place Sept. 8-22 and Sept. 17-25 in areas of the Mediterranean where Turkish seismic research vessels…

On the 2,500th anniversary of a historic Athenian victory, rising tensions with Turkey remind Greece of its role as Europe’s gatekeeper It’s unusual for a modern Greek audience to punctuate an ancient tragedy with applause. But in July, a production of Aeschylus’ “The Persians” by the National Theatre of Greece, presented in the splendor of the ancient theater of Epidauros, was applauded three times…

NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO UNDERMINE IRAN’S NUCLEAR AMBITIONSAl-Arab, London, August 28 Even if Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden wins the election and enters the White House, it is unlikely that he will restore former president Barack Obama’s old policies on Iran. It is clear today beyond any reasonable doubt that Iran is on the path of building nuclear weapons. Indeed, the Iranian…

On the sidelines of Turkish celebration of victory against the Byzantine Empire in 1071, former Turkish MP Metin Külünk of the ruling party posted, a map of the Seljuq Empire of what was known as Greater Turkey. The map stretches across vast past parts of Greece, Aegean islands, half of Bulgaria, Cyprus, the whole of Armenia and large swathes of Georgia, Iraq and Syria….

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry on Wednesday called an article published in German daily Die Welt as a “product of imagination”. The article claimed Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered Turkish navy to sink a Greek warship without causing any casualties. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy said the accusations of the Greek government against Turkey in the article are made up. He said Greece’s new provocative…

Yasin Aktay, who advises Turkey’s Erdogan in his ruling AK Party, has accused German Chancellor Angela Merkel of calling in “Crusaders” in the eastern Mediterranean, in reference to her call for all EU countries to support Greece. “Despite the mediator role she has assumed, by calling EU countries to almost unconditionally stand with Greece, listen to and support it, she is openly stating with…

Goverment spokesperson Stelios Petsas, in an interview on Wednesday to TV OPEN, referred to a “Die Welt” article saying that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered his generals to sink any Greek ship or bring down any Greek fighter jet, noting that it is a serious newspaper and that the article has not been refuted by either by the Turkish government or by…

Could war finally be coming to the eastern Mediterranean? It’s not as excitable a question as it might first appear. In an article titled, ‘Erdogan’s calculated war,’ the German newspaper Die Welt quoted sources from the Turkish military saying that president Recep Tayyip Erdogan had recently ordered his generals to sink a Greek warship, without inflicting casualties. They refused. Then came the suggestion to down a Greek…

Turkey condemned the U.S. for easing a decades-old arms embargo on Cyprus, saying the move could fuel already heightened tensions over territorial disputes in the energy-rich eastern Mediterranean. The Foreign Ministry urged Washington to reverse course, saying the decision “poisoned the atmosphere of peace and stability in the region and violated the spirit of the alliance” between them. “Otherwise, Turkey will decisively take reciprocal…

Turkey on Wednesday called on the US to review its decision to partially lift an arms embargo imposed on Cyprus in the late 1980s. The Turkish Foreign Ministry criticized Washington’s move as one that would hurt efforts to reunify the Mediterranean island and harm regional stability. “In a period in which efforts are being made to reduce tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, the US’ signing…

It will not end reliance on imports; and the eastern Med will stay tense FOR MONTHS Turkish drilling ships had scavenged the seabed of the eastern Mediterranean for energy sources, sailing into disputed waters and provoking a standoff with Cyprus, Greece and the EU. Yet it was in the murky depths of the Black Sea that Turkey ended up striking gas. On August 21st…

On July 24, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan joined thousands of worshippers in the streets around the historic Hagia Sophia in Istanbul for a doubly symbolic moment. Surrounded by a swarm of politicians, soldiers, security forces and imams, the Turkish leader made his way into the giant, former Byzantine cathedral through doors once hammered open by conquering Ottoman soldiers in 1453. Inside, he read…

Not for the first time, fellow NATO members Turkey and Greece are at each other’s throats. But this time the flare-up between the historic rivals is especially dangerous and unpredictable, observers warn, as the neighbors’ warships patrol disputed Mediterranean waters thought to be rich in oil and gas. Turkey, led by authoritarian President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, appears eager to press its long-standing objections to…

Austria has caught a person spying for Turkey on its soil, the interior minister said today, in a revelation that threatens to further strain relations between Ankara and Vienna. During a televised news conference, Austrian Interior Minister Karl Nehammer said that an individual had been “recruited by the Turkish secret service to spy on other Turkish citizens or Austrian citizens with a Turkish migration background to…

The number of inflammatory and threatening statements made by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over recent months has been escalating at a meteoric rate, and due to their hollow nature, they have become a source of ridicule across the globe. Hardly a day passes without a new threatening statement made by Erdogan towards Greece, the EU or countries in the Middle East. The tone…

Even a kerfuffle can reveal a strategic blunder. In December 2019, the New York Times editorial board taped an interview with former Vice President Joe Biden. A segment dealing with US-Turkish relations did not make the final cut, but eight months later, on August 15, 2020, it surfaced on the internet and sparked outrage in Turkey. Biden was especially critical of Turkey’s policies towards…

Turkey will not tolerate “piracy or banditry’’ in the Aegean and Mediterranean regions, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Monday. The country, which has the longest coastline in the Mediterranean region. will not be confined to its shores, state-run Anadolu new agency cited Erdoğan as saying in the northern province of Giresun at an event kick-staring the fishing season in the region. “As the Turkish…

How the looming end of a 100-year-old treaty exposes the existential paranoia at the heart of Erdogan’s foreign policy. – OCTOBER 2, 2014 While American commentators debate whether Turkey will join U.S. President Barack Obama’s coalition against the Islamic State, some Turkish pundits are looking ahead to more serious foreign-policy challenges — like what will happen in 2023 when the Treaty of Lausanne expires…

 Mining area has more than tripled since March 2019, NGO says.Officials redouble work on mining camps as oil output plummets  U.S. sanctions and a collapsing oil industry are prompting Venezuela to step up its push into gold mining, including in protected areas of the Amazon. The amount of land used for mining has more than tripled since March last year, according to a study by…

By over-projecting its power potential, Ankara finds itself on a conflictual trajectory, on a case-by-case basis, with the interests of other major or regional powers such as the US, Russia, France, Italy, Israel, Egypt, and Germany. The summer of 2020 has been unlike any summer in recent history. Usually, during the long summer months, a sort of informal moratorium appears between Greece and Turkey…

Observers fear a mistake or miscalculation could lead to military conflict between the Nato members As warships bristling with 21st century weapons systems prowled the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey’s president drew on a rather earlier era to underline his latest round of sabre-rattling towards Greece. Recep Tayyip Erdogan chose the anniversary of a battle that took place near 1,000 years ago as an opportunity to…

Turkey’s Defense Ministry published a video on Friday alleging to show that its F-16s confronted Greek F-16s as the Greeks were heading from Crete toward an area where Turkey had declared a naval drill. Tensions are running high between the two NATO members. NATO head Jens Stoltenberg phoned Turkey’s president and begged Ankara to do “de-confliction” with Athens. Meanwhile, Egypt and Greece ratified a…

CAIRO – 29 August 2020: Metin Külünk, a former lawmaker from Turkey’s ruling AK Party, has released a map of “Greater Turkey” that goes back to the era of the Seljuk Empire and its defeat of the Byzantine Empire in the 1071 Battle of Manzikert. Külünk, who is close to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, published the map on Twitter to mark the anniversary…

On Europe’s periphery, tensions involving an array of competing countries are rising. The brewing crisis in Belarus has sparked fears of an armed Russian intervention. And a standoff in the eastern Mediterranean is pitting Turkey against Greece, Cyprus and France. Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russian forces were ready to enter neighboring Belarus “if necessary,” apparently following a request from embattled Belarusian President Alexander…

PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that he had taken a tough stance over the summer with regard to Turkey’s actions in the eastern Mediterranean, setting red lines because Ankara respects actions not words. French President Emmanuel Macron, wearing a protective face mask, visits a site of pharmaceutical group Seqens, a global leader on the production of active pharmaceutical ingredients,…

NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Greek and Turkish warships are testing each other’s naval prowess while political leaders in Athens and Ankara probe each other’s resolve over a search for hydrocarbon reserves in east Mediterranean waters that each nation claims. Despite the saber rattling, there’s doesn’t appear to be a real appetite for war. But neither nation is ready to back down and look weak….

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that he had taken a tough stance over the summer with regard to Turkey’s actions in the eastern Mediterranean, setting red lines because Ankara respects actions not words. Relations between France and Turkey have soured in recent months over Ankara’s role in NATO, Libya and the Mediterranean. Macron has called for the EU to show…

The Eastern Mediterranean has become an increasingly crowded space, between precarious refugee crossings from Libya to Europe, the flow of arms and mercenaries in the other direction, and Russia’s new naval hub at the Syrian port of Tartus. 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…

No one should fool themselves about the nature of Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s vision for Turkey. It’s an imperialist project that would see Turkey’s hegemony stretch from the Mediterranean Sea and Libya all the way to Iran. Erdogan’s plans for his country’s expansion are evident in the current stand-off in the eastern Mediterranean between Turkey and Greece. Turkish frigates are accompanying a research vessel, the Oruc…

On 6 July, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borell travelled to Turkey to discuss problems in Turkish-European relations with Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, the country’s foreign minister. The background of the meeting consisted of tensions in Turkish-French relations and the upcoming Foreign Affairs Council (13 July) where EU ministers were to discuss the future of relations with Turkey. The Borell-Çavuşoğlu…

The celebration commemorating the anniversary of the 1071 Seljuk victory over Byzantine armies turned into a display of nationalist frenzy, which indicates Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s increasing need to consolidate his support base by expansionist and aggressive foreign policy. The Battle of Manzikert took place 949 year ago. In 1071, the Seljuks, the Ottomans’ predecessors, defeated the mainly Greek forces of the Byzantine…

In this exclusive broadcast, Edgar Şar hosts public international law experts Yunus Emre Açıkgönül and Nicholas Ioannides to discuss Turkish and Greek claims on how maritime delimitation should be carried out in the Eastern Mediterranean from a legal perspective. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhLbIhKQ7LE

Conflict over drilling rights to massive natural-gas deposits in the eastern Mediterranean is becoming increasingly militarized, risking a conflict between two NATO members. BRUSSELS — An escalating dispute between Greece and Turkey over energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean is fast becoming militarized, raising the risks of a clash among NATO allies. Foreign Minister Heiko Maas of Germany, who visited Greece and Turkey this…

Turkey is protesting the UAE for establishing diplomatic relations with Israel—even though Ankara has had diplomatic relations with Israel for the past 71 years. If the UAE, as Ankara argues, has betrayed the “Palestinian cause” just by having diplomatic relations with Israel, then Turkey has been betraying the “Palestinian cause” since 1949. These days, Turkey’s foreign policy calculus, especially when it involves matters surrounding…

The subject of maritime boundaries has been discussed and studied for decades. More recently, gas discoveries emerged in Egyptian, Israeli, and Cypriot waters. Exploiting other potential gas discoveries in the area is the current focus of Ankara. Diversification from its current energy dependence on Russian and Iranian gas would indeed be beneficial to Turkey. But the recent drop in gas prices and the large…

HASAKAH, Syria — Co-Chair of the Local Administration and Municipalities Authority in the Democratic Autonomous Administration (DAA) of North and East Syria Joseph Lahdo confirmed that the DAA is undertaking alternative projects to provide water for Hasakah Canton and called on international parties to put an end to the violations of the Turkish occupation. The current water crisis has been ongoing since 13 August…

An effort to mediate a thaw between Greece and Turkey was “smooth” on the Greek side but “really hard on the Turkish side,” German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer told the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs, Josep Borrell, in an off-record discussion in Berlin on Wednesday. In a video published on Wednesday from a press conference at the informal meeting of European defense…

For a very long time our Holy Land suffered from covetousness from its surrounding political rivals due to its geopolitically important via maris. In our present world, Israel treads carefully as it seeks world acceptance, being squeezed in the Eastern Mediterranean between two strategic locations, the Suez Canal, important in world trade, and the Bosporus, a key naval strait in NATO’s rivalry with Russia….

The EU member states “must continue to show solidarity with Greece and Cyprus in the Eastern Mediterranean crisis,” Foreign Minister Bogdan Aurescu said on Wednesday in a Twitter message one day before the informal Gymnich meeting of EU diplomats, scheduled for Thursday and Friday in Berlin. “On tensions in #EastMed, tomorrow @ #Gymnich in Berlin I’ll reiterate that #EU Member States must continue to…

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is seen in a file photo. ‘As a rogue, he challenges us to declare what we stand for and who we stand with,’ the author says of the Turkish strongman. Who in the West knows what to do about Recep Tayyip Erdogan? He’s no longer who we hoped he was. He challenges what we stand for – our norms…

The Gülen movement is one of two marginalized groups in present-day Turkey along with the with Kurds. However, the situation was quite different 10 years ago. The people who launched a fierce campaign to “finish off” the Gülen group in today’s Turkey once considered it their closest ally. The politicians who currently rule the country used to send their own children to schools run…

In June 2006, Cem Gürdeniz, the head of the Turkish Navy’s planning staff, outlined a foreign policy concept that interested few at the time because it seemed overly audacious and aggressive. In a speech he gave in Ankara, Gürdeniz called for Turkey’s expansion in the Mediterranean region, saying the government needed redraw its borders, taking up arms if necessary, to secure the country’s economic…

Greece and Turkey are planning rival naval exercises off Crete amid an escalating row over energy claims in the Eastern Mediterranean. The two neighbours have seen frequent flare-ups, but this latest spat over gas reserves and maritime rights has prompted fears that tensions could escalate further. Several other countries have stakes in the dispute and the two Nato allies are engaged in a war…

Russian increased naval activity in the eastern Mediterranean is sounding alarm bells for the Turkish military and the British military bases on Cyprus. The Russian Navy has gathered 9 vessels between Cyprus and Syria, four of which are surface warships and three are submarines. What worries other players in the region (namely the British and the Turks) more, is the fact that the Russians…

Economic shambles, a static political base, brewing conflict in the Mediterranean? According to Erdogan’s alarming new propaganda video, the ‘New Turkey’ has the answers: the flag, the faith and the armed forces. Enjoy! Source: Turkey’s Presidential Communications Directorate

In a column for TR724, Professor Mehmet Efe Çaman has written an article that would surely shock most of his readers as he urges Turks to understand that the sovereignty of Greece’s Aegean islands are not under question. In it, the professor urges for a de-escalation of tensions between Greece and Turkey, arguing that Turkey is an expansionist power and that their cries on…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j8FF33W3STM Turkey says its natural gas find in the Black Sea will likely be followed by further discoveries, altering the geopolitics of energy trade in its region. President Recip Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman Ibrahim Kalin spoke exclusively to Bloomberg’s Turkey Bureau Chief Onur Ant in Istanbul on Saturday.

The father of Turkey’s controversial new maritime doctrine told AFP that France’s decision to send warships to help Greece out in its Mediterranean standoff with Ankara was adding “fuel to the fire”. While he might be retired, the “Blue Homeland” vision that Rear Admiral Cem Gurdeniz helped craft over a decade ago is being turned into reality by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan today….

The sides are now discussing “the financial arrangement of implementing the contract,”Head of Russia’s state arms seller Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheyev MOSCOW, August 23. /TASS/. A contract on the delivery of the second batch of S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems to Turkey has been signed and the sides are discussing the contract’s financial terms, Head of Russia’s state arms seller Rosoboronexport Alexander Mikheyev told reporters on…

Having already emasculated the 96-pound weaklings of the Eunuch Union like he was wielding a Burdizzo, Turkey’s Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan thought he could do the same to Greek Premier Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who may look like a kid you can bully in the schoolyard and take his lunch money but he’s got what they no longer have. Mitsotakis, he of the privileged pedigree upbringing…

AT THIS TIME of year the eastern Mediterranean evokes thoughts of holiday beaches. It has become a destination for superyachts avoiding covid-hit Spain. Unfortunately, this summer the region is also luring warships, as tensions rise between Greece and Turkey over disputed waters. A collision between Greek and Turkish frigates on August 12th was the worst confrontation between the two NATO allies since a face-off…

A plethora of countries is entangled in a string of disputes in the area AS NAVAL BATTLES go, it was not a classic. The Kemal Reis, a Turkish frigate named after a 15th-century Ottoman admiral who tormented the Venetian fleet, was one of five escorts sent to protect the Oruc Reis, an exploration ship designed to hunt for undersea oil and gas. The Limnos,…

Congressional leaders have blocked major U.S. arms sales to Turkey for almost two years in response to Ankara’s purchase of Russian S-400 missile systems, which the United States says threatens the F-35 fighter jet’s stealth capabilities. Turkey was subsequently ejected from the joint F-35 programme. The congressional hold on arms sales, first reported last week by Defense News, has also impacted other key priorities…

While the United States has imposed sanctions on Chinese officials and companies complicit in the abuse of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities, Beijing makes use of its deep pockets to buy the silence of majority Muslim countries around the world. The most shocking among these is Turkey, which shares not only religious but also ethnic affinity with China’s more than 12 million Uyghurs. Turkish…

A photograph made public by Kathimerini on Wednesday reveals the damage sustained to the right side of the stern of the Kemal Reis frigate during the collision on August 12. Greek Defense Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos on Tuesday congratulated the captain of the Greek frigate Limnos that accidentally collided with a Turkish ship during a standoff in the Eastern Mediterranean last week and indicated that Greece…

The worsening stand-off in the eastern Mediterranean, frequently described as a gas conflict, has been gaining momentum. It may seem a strange time to be fighting over gas when prices remain in a slump due to weak demand and investors withdrawing. So what explains the escalating conflict between Turkey, Greece, Cyprus and Egypt, which is drawing in other regional and European powers? Large reserves…

The region’s powers and the West are facing off against Turkey—and Turkey is not going down without a fight. In mid-August, a Turkish and a Greek warship collided in the Eastern Mediterranean, raising tensions in the most combustible naval stand-off the region has witnessed in 20 years. The crisis had started two days before, when Turkey deployed an energy exploration ship along with its…

MEXICO CITY (AP) — At first glance, they seem like an odd couple. Yet Turkey, a Mediterranean power that often chafes at what it calls Western interventionism, and Venezuela on the Caribbean, rich in oil and gold but in perpetual crisis and under U.S. sanctions, have a few things in common. There is an economic relationship; the murkier aspects have attracted the scrutiny of…

Sir, We too are deeply concerned by President Erdogan’s escalation of rhetoric and threat in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean (Erdogan’s Provocations, leading article, Aug 15). Positive developments in energy are an opportunity to build more productive and stable regional relationships, but require all parties to abide by international law. Other regional governments have shown their willingness to negotiate within the framework set by the…