What is Turkey's Eastern Mediterranean Policy?

The Eastern Mediterranean is the part east of the line drawn between Cape Bon and Cape Lilibeo, the western part of Sicily Island. Accordingly, the littoral countries in the Eastern Mediterranean are Albania, Montenegro, Greece, Libya, Israel, Egypt, Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Syria, Palestine, Tunisia, TRNC and GCASC.

Turkey's Eastern Mediterranean and Libya policy is an interrelated issue. The policies pursued by Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean and the policies pursued by the countries of the region (Greece, Egypt and Israel) and the GASC against Turkey in a sense are designed to maximise their own interests from the perspective of sovereign states, especially in terms of realism. The foreign policy pursued by Turkey in Libya is to prevent the formations that limit the maritime jurisdiction areas and exclusive economic zone expectations of the TRNC and Turkey by taking Libya to its side in the Eastern Mediterranean, and at the same time to cripple the developments against Turkey from the beginning with a new initiative.

The Eastern Mediterranean has been a strategically important region that has maintained its importance in every period of history and today. The trade route from the Indian Ocean to Europe passes through here. It hosts the energy routes travelling from the Middle East to the West. The Baku-Ceyhan pipeline enables the transport of Caucasian oil by sea. It allows ship transport through the Suez Canal. In addition, the island of Cyprus, which is almost like an aircraft carrier in the Mediterranean, maintains its importance in terms of international politics today as it did in history. 

Turkey, which owns Cyprus, has reached a level of geostrategic power that almost does not give Turkey the right to live in the Eastern Mediterranean. No Turkish government can allow Cyprus to be completely out of its hands, even in readings based solely on power politics. Likewise, the presence of natural gas and oil deposits has increased the importance of both Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean in general to an extent not seen in history. The Eastern Mediterranean has become an area of competition between sovereign states. For this reason, there is a struggle for existence in the Eastern Mediterranean not only among the countries of the region but also among global powers through direct or indirect energy policies. As can be seen, our Cyprus and Eastern Mediterranean policies must be policies that deserve to be supra-governmental, that should not change with zig zags, and that have a clear strategic direction. 

In this sense, the basic principles in general terms should be as follows:

It is unacceptable for any country, company or ship to carry out hydrocarbon exploration and extraction activities in our continental shelf in the Eastern Mediterranean without Turkey's authorisation. 

The TRNC's hydrocarbon exploration and extraction activities cannot be seen as a separate activity from Turkey. 

The European Union is not a party in the Eastern Mediterranean. It is unacceptable that it wants to be a party through the SCGA and Greece, and that the Greek-Greek duo's efforts to dictate their maximalist maritime jurisdiction claims as if they were the EU's common policy.

Gunboat diplomacy should continue to be used effectively and our presence in the Eastern Mediterranean should be reinforced through military exercises and training activities.

Considering that Turkey's interests in the Eastern Mediterranean are directly proportional to the relations it will develop with Egypt, primarily Libya, Israel and Lebanon as much as possible, and Syria in the coming years, a policy of 'cooperation and common gains' should be pursued, and conflicting policies with these countries should be shelved.

The Importance of Relations with Libya:

It is known that the agreement signed between Turkey and Libya disturbs Greece and the countries that support it. I believe that the reason behind Greece allowing the establishment of American bases in order to attract the US, which has been having problems in its relations with Turkey in recent years, is to maximise its interests in the Eastern Mediterranean by backing the US military power.

Turkey's finding a way to come to an agreement with the regime in Libya has disturbed all countries with interests in the Eastern Mediterranean. In the meantime, Turkey's keeping the drillships it purchased in the Eastern Mediterranean for oil and natural gas exploration activities, together with the agreement signed with Libya, has increased the world's interest in the Eastern Mediterranean issue. This should be read as the biggest indicator that we are on the right track.

Nowadays, we see that the Eastern Mediterranean is gradually falling off the agenda due to domestic politics and election-based policies. When the earthquake disaster came on top of it, we completely closed in on ourselves! But until 3 or 4 months ago, the steps taken by Ankara were very important for the Eastern Mediterranean. As of now, the conflict between Israel and Palestine, the Syrian Civil War and the Lebanese Problem are also seen as the problems of the Eastern Mediterranean. The Libyan Civil War is now one of the issues that come to mind when we talk about Eastern Mediterranean problems. The governmental preferences in Libya have become an issue that closely concerns Turkey. 

Russia's airstrikes in Syria, Israel's blockade and attacks on Gaza, Iran's activities in Lebanon, the US support for the PKK/YPG, and the support of Western countries, Saudi Arabia and the UAE for the coup in Egypt are power policies that are closely related to the Eastern Mediterranean from their own perspectives. Turkey is not in a position to close its eyes to any of these developments.

In the Eastern Mediterranean, where so many regional and extra-regional actors continue their efforts to take an active part, Turkey, in order to protect its own rights, must continue to keep its interest and attention to the Eastern Mediterranean uninterruptedly, regardless of domestic political conflicts. This should be seen as a supra-political state policy. 

Stay with respect and love.