The European Union has threatened Turkey with new sanctions – including tough economic measures – unless progress is made in reducing tense tensions with Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean.
EU top diplomat Josep Borrell said Friday that the bloc wanted to “give a serious chance for dialogue” but was firm in its support for member states Greece and Cyprus in the crisis, which has raised fears of a military uprising.
A dispute over maritime borders and gas drilling rights off the island of Cyprus has rekindled the long-running rivalry between Athens and Ankara, with the two neighbors organizing rival naval exercises.
EU measures, aimed at limiting Turkey’s ability to explore for natural gas in disputed waters, could cover individuals, ships or the use of European ports, Borrell said.
“We can go for measures related to sectoral activities … where the Turkish economy is related to the European economy,” Borrell told a news conference, referring to possible sanctions.
The EU would focus on everything related to “activities we consider illegal”, he said.
Borrell spoke after EU Foreign Minister convened in Berlin to discuss support for Greece after ratifying a maritime agreement with Egypt to counter Turkey’s claims on the region’s energy resources.
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‘Outside the EU’
Turkey’s foreign ministry said the EU had no basis for its stance and rejected Greece’s maritime claims.
“It is beyond the borders of the EU to criticize our country’s hydrocarbon activities within our own continental shelf and demand that we stop them,” said spokesman Hami Aksoy.
Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said Ankara had urged the EU “not to support Greece’s maximum demands against international law under the guise of union [EU] solidarity “.
“Greece is not an archipelago state. It is illegal under international law for Greek islands to have a continental shelf,” he said. Koseoglu said, citing a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry.
Borrell and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the EU first wanted to give a dialogue a chance to cool tensions between Greece and Turkey, which are NATO allies.
Turkey is also a formal candidate to join the EU, although its candidacy is in jeopardy and could be withdrawn as a sort of sanction, diplomats have said.
Two senior EU diplomats told Reuters news agency that Foreign Minister agreed to hand over any decision to EU government leaders, who met from September 24 for a two-day summit.
“Nothing will be decided before the September European Council,” said a senior diplomat, adding that Turkey could also be rewarded with greater access to the EU market of 450 million consumers if they restricted their drilling.
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John Psarapoulous, reporting for Al Jazeera from Athens, said “there is a tenor of satisfaction on the Greek side” after the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Berlin.
He said Greece had imposed conditions on any bilateral dialogue with Turkey.
“It [Athens] wants not only that this dialogue is a political agreement for what the two sides agree on based on the current dynamics in the eastern Mediterranean, but internationally, “he said.
“[Greece] wants Turkey to stand up for arbitration at the International Court of Justice [of Justice] in The Hague if the dialogue ultimately fails. “
Greece and Turkey are at loggerheads over the rights to potential hydrocarbon resources in the region, based on conflicting claims over the size of their continental shelves.
Tensions escalated this month after Ankara sent the Orism Journey seismic research vessel into a disputed area following the pact between Athens and Cairo.
The agreement is seen as a response to a Turkish-Libyan agreement signed in 2019 that gives Turkey access to areas in the region where large hydrocarbon discoveries have been discovered.
On Thursday, the Turkish military issued a statement, known as Navtex, saying it would hold “gunnery exercises” on September 1 and 2 in the eastern Mediterranean off the coast of Iskenderun, northeast of Cyprus.
SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
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