What are the facts so far – What will be the next step in Greek-Turkish
“Abdul Hamit Khan” remains in Turkish territorial waters, since Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants to weigh the international reactions, before moving the next pawn in Greek-Turkish territory.
The neighboring country has found fertile ground, at the mercy of war in Ukraine, to claim more on the Mediterranean chessboard and is lurking to take advantage of the slightest movement.
Erdogan “heard” from hard-liners inside the walls about the slow route given to the Abdul Hamid Khan, which made its first stop 29.69 miles south of the country’s coast.
Its big bet is to demarcate in half with Egypt from the 32nd to the 28th meridian, crowding out what Cyprus is entitled to.
It is recalled that Turkey still disputes parts of the licensed sea areas in the demarcated area to the southwest (Cyprus-Egypt EEZ).
To the southeast there is the also demarcated continental shelf with Israel and Lebanon (which it has not ratified), for which Turkey invokes the illegal permission of the Turkish Cypriot entity (non-existent under international law).
Finally, the demarcated Greek-Egyptian EEZ probably does not count, because in the corresponding illegal Turkish-Libyan EEZ, Ankara has no seismic data.
At these three points, the neighboring country has completed research and is a candidate for drilling.
In the first two cases, drilling on a delimited continental shelf constitutes a flagrant violation of the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus.
the area north of the Occupied, which produces no legal effect under Turkey’s invalid agreement with the defunct Turkish Cypriot entity
the area of disputed claims from the 28th to the 30th meridian, where “Oruç Reis” was exploring in 2020
Finally, in the event that drilling is carried out in the coastal zone in the nearby areas of Karpasia and Famagusta, it will constitute a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of Cyprus.
In short, Ankara is trying in vain to cancel the Cypriot EEZ, because it cannot bypass the legal reality.
She believes she can control the rest of the region by the 28th meridian, which was her original goal.
Then he wants to move further west to conclude the illegal Turkish-Libyan demarcation.
