Turkey escalates tensions with latest exploration deal with Libya
In 2019 Turkey signed a memorandum with the Tripoli-based government in Libya to split the Eastern Mediterranean in two, completely disregarding international law and Libya’s neighbors like Greece and Egypt. On Monday, Turkey took this a step further, announcing that it had signed an agreement with Libya’s interim government allowing for Ankara’s oil rigs and research ships to search for oil and natural gas on Libyan soil and in the maritime zone set out in the illegal 2019 memorandum. These moves were condemned by Greece, Egypt, the EU, the US, and the Libyan parliament in the east of the country, and threaten to escalate tensions further between Greece and Turkey. Angelos Syrigos, Greece’s Deputy Minister of Education and Religious Affairs and an assistant professor of International Law and Foreign Policy at Panteion University in Athens, joins Thanos Davelis to discuss this latest Turkey-Libya agreement and its potential consequences for Greek-Turkish relations.
You can read the articles we discuss on our podcast here:
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