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TURKEY / EU. His name is Oruç Reis. This gas exploration ship, with the red and white flag of its country painted on one side, has been stigmatizing the differences between the European Union and Turkey since July 2020. The ship, well escorted, operates in maritime areas claimed by Greece and the Republic of Cyprus. And this has awakened the EU which, in July 2019 and for the same reasons, had suspended the meetings of the Association Council, in charge of preparing Turkey’s entry into the EU.
Despite threats of new sanctions, the first concrete ones dating back to September 2020 with a European Parliament resolution, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan returned the ship to sea in October 2020. And now they are falling. Even if they remain very timid, rejecting for example the suggestion of economic sanctions against certain sectors of activity and a European arms embargo on Turkey proposed by Athens.
On the night of Friday, December 11, 2020, EU leaders meeting at a summit in Brussels decided to punish Turkey’s so-called “illegal and aggressive” actions against Athens and Nicosia. The European Council specifies that the measures adopted are individual sanctions. The blacklist of those affected will be published in the coming weeks and sent to Member States for approval. In fact, it will join the one already established in November 2019 to sanction the drilling activities of Turkey’s Yavuz in the waters of the Republic of Cyprus. It includes two officials from the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) who are prohibited from obtaining visas to travel to the European Union and whose European assets have been frozen.
