Returning to the tensions Greece “Turkey’s harassment is unacceptable”

It seems that the tensions between Greece and Turkey, above all in sea, re-emerged after relative calm months ago.

Today, Saturday, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias announced that he had asked the Greek embassy in Ankara to lodge a strong protest against what he described as Turkish harassment of the research vessel (Nautical Geo).

He also denounced the announcement of a maritime warning (NAVTEX) as “illegal”.

Also, Dendias added in a tweet via his Twitter account: “The continuation of this Turkish behavior is totally unacceptable.”

The Turkish Defense Minister, Hulusi Akar, strongly attacked Greece more than two weeks ago, saying that “its policies, its expansionist stance and its behavior are provocative and crazy”. He also noted that Athens “constantly uses threatening language against Turkey”.

Turkish ship for gas exploration

locked files

It is worth noting that although the two countries are together in NATO, they are in disagreement on many issues, including claims in competition for sovereignty over each other’s continental shelf in the Mediterranean, airspace, energy resources, ethnically divided Cyprus and some islands in the Aegean Sea.

Tensions between the two countries escalated last summer (2020), when Turkey sent an exploration ship into disputed Mediterranean waters, but its intensity eased slightly after Ankara withdrew the ship and the two countries resumed talks. bilateral to resolve their differences after a five-year break.

Image showing thearea border between Greece and Turkey (Istok)

Stumbled dialogue loops

Ankara and Athens held 60 round of talks between 2002 and 2016, but plans to resume them last year were stalled by a reconnaissance ship that Turkey had dispatched to disputed waters, as well as disagreements over what issues should be addressed.

This last point remains unresolved: while Greece would like to discuss the delimitation of maritime zones only in the Aegean and the Mediterranean, Turkey stresses that all issues, including the airspace and the status of some Aegean islands, as well as Cyprus , need to be discussed.