61st round of talks on the Eastern Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey conclude
At a meeting between Greece and Turkey on Monday over Turkish hydrocarbon exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, Turkey said it wanted to "solve the problems".
Diplomats from both countries met in Istanbul for "exploratory contacts" to see if they can actually sit down in the future to conclude a mutually satisfactory agreement. In this way Ankara and Athens reactivated the dialogue that has been stalled since 2016.
"Resolving all problems, including those in the Aegean Sea, is possible and our will to achieve it is total. Regional peace and stability are in everyone's interest," President Erdogan's spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said on Twitter.
Turkey had been defying Greece for months by sending several gas exploration missions, sparking a diplomatic crisis unprecedented since 1996, when the two NATO countries were on the brink of armed conflict. Amid the tension of the past months, Athens decided to buy 18 Rafale fighter jets from France in response to Turkish provocations.
Until the EU announced sanctions against Ankara, the Turkish authorities have done little to de-escalate tensions. At the moment, the imposition of sanctions on Turkey could be very damaging to its long-stagnant economy. For the time being, in December the EU approved sanctions targeting officials involved in exploration activities in the eastern Mediterranean.
Although the parties expressed "optimism" and "hope" and praised the "positive atmosphere", the meeting did not yield much progress. They had not even agreed on the issues to be discussed. Greece only wanted to discuss the delimitation of the continental shelf of its islands in the Aegean Sea, while Turkey wanted to extend the talks to define the exclusive economic zones and airspace of the two countries.
On the other hand, Turkey's chief diplomat, Mevlut Cavusoglu, took a dim view of Greece's future claims to double the extent of its territorial waters in the Aegean, as it has done in the Ionian following an agreement signed with Italy. This is perfectly legal under international law but seen by Ankara as a provocation.
The crisis that had been dragging on for months intensified when Ankara ordered the exploratory vessel Oruç Reis into the waters off the Greek island of Kastellorizo.
Greece has repeatedly accused Turkey of violating its maritime borders, but Ankara considers that the presence of this islet cannot justify its exclusion from a large part of the eastern Mediterranean.
For the time being, Turkey will continue on the path of de-escalation in order to avoid further EU sanctions, although the talks do not promise to be easy. Meanwhile, Turkish officials are already preparing for a cooling of relations with the United States, as the new administration is not expected to be as permissive towards Erdogan. So far the only statements on the matter have come from the new State Department spokesman, Ned Price, who on his Twitter account expressed his support for "all efforts to reduce tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean".
In December last year, Joe Biden said in an interview for the New York Times that the US should cooperate with the Turkish opposition to remove Erdogan from power. These words were not well received either by the ruling party or the opposition itself.
