Tensions between Turkey and Greece have escalated in recent weeks, involving a number of external actors, including the EU and NATO. [ Ссылка ] #eudebates #Turkey #Dialogue [ Ссылка ] #heritage #debates #HagiaSophia #Migration #Borrell #Turkey #Ankara #Erdogan
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All eyes on US, Germany, France, Greece and EU meetings over Turkey
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The dispute revolves around Turkey’s exploration of natural gas in the waters between the Greek islands and Cyprus. Ankara sees the area as part of its exclusive economic zone, which Athens does not recognise. At the beginning of August, the Turkish Navy began to escort its country’s research ships, to which Greece responded on 26 August with military manoeuvres, in which French frigates and aviation also participated (Paris has given Athens strong support in the dispute with Ankara). These actions have been accompanied by very sharp anti-Turkish statements by Greek leaders and military figures.
EU’s neighbourhood ‘engulfed in flames’, warns foreign policy chief
The EU’s neighbourhood is “in flames” with crises from Belarus to the eastern Mediterranean that demand an urgent united response from member states, the bloc’s foreign policy chief has warned.
Josep Borrell also said the Balkans were a “powder keg” that the EU had to help defuse to improve regional security and meet its ambition to be a credible world foreign policy force.
“In the last 10 months, our neighbourhood has become engulfed in flames, from Libya to Belarus,” Mr Borrell said in an interview with the Financial Times. “Everything has got much worse than I could have expected.”
His comments come as EU countries spar over efforts to impose sanctions over the post-election crackdown in Belarus by Alexander Lukashenko and Turkey’s attempts to seize potentially gas-rich eastern Mediterranean waters. EU leaders will also hold a video summit with China’s President Xi Jinping on Monday that is likely to underscore the tension in the bloc’s push to win economic concessions from Beijing while condemning its clampdown in Hong Kong and Xinjiang.
Mr Borrell said EU foreign ministers on September 21 were expected to agree on sanctions on Belarusian officials for the rigging of last month’s presidential election and the ensuing crackdown on political opponents. Mr Lukashenko’s inclusion in the draft list of about 40 names was something “to be debated”, he added. The bloc had 170 people including Mr Lukashenko on a Belarus sanction list until 2016.
Mediation between Turkey and Greece had been initiated by Germany before the dispute escalated, but these informal negotiations under Berlin’s supervision did not bring any results. In this situation, at the end of August, the EU’s head of diplomacy Josep Borrell threatened to impose sanctions on Turkey; these would cover individual politicians, impose restrictions on vessels (including blocking their access to European ports), as well as unspecified financial consequences. Decisions on this matter are to be taken at a special summit of the European Council scheduled for 24-25 September.
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Cyprus is holding the list up to secure a quid pro quo of sanctions on Turkey, some EU diplomats say. A Cypriot official denied the country was blocking the move, saying it lacked the bureaucratic capacity to study the recommendations quickly.
Mr Borrell said EU action on Turkey would be discussed by leaders at a Brussels summit starting on September 24 following the deployment of warships by Turkey and France in the eastern Mediterranean.
“The tensions in the eastern Mediterranean between Greece, Turkey and Cyprus have been increasing exponentially, and there is a strong risk of a confrontation that goes further than just words,” said Mr Borrell, a 73-year-old former Spanish foreign minister who began his five-year EU posting in December.
Mr Borrell said that it was “up to the Germans” — who identified the use of novichok — to decide whether to retaliate over the Navalny case by stopping the Nord Stream 2 project to pipe Russian gas to the country. “Nord Stream 2 is not a European project. I have to say that the commission has never shown a strong enthusiasm for Nord Stream 2,” he said.
Mr Borrell bemoaned a “lack of urgency” in EU foreign policymaking and was candid about the limitations of his role, not least the need for unanimous decision-making by member states. He likened EU foreign policymaking to the early days of monetary union before the euro, when a virtual common currency coexisted alongside national currencies.
