Why Dendias requested a tripartite meeting with Germany, Libya – What Turkish move awaits Athens
Newsbomb.gr reveals the reason why Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs requested a tripartite meeting with the counterparts of Germany and Libya and the move that Athens expects from Ankara.
On April 21, 2020, the Turkish state oil company TPAO submitted a request to conduct exploration outside Turkish territorial waters in an area between Karpathos and Crete up to 6nm from Greek territorial waters.
On May 30, the request was published in the Turkish government newspaper.
At its request, the TPAO, which was used as a tool for Turkey’s foreign policy, had divided the sea area between Turkey and Libya into 24 plots in the area of the Turkish-Libyan memorandum and asked it to send a drilling rig to the area where it begins Ankara – the Libyan EEZ.
Athens responded with a gesture to the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Turkish ambassador, and Nikos Dendias stated that this is a request for investigations in areas of the Greek continental shelf, which is part of the series of actions with the present Turkey is attempting step by step to usurp the sovereign rights of Greece.
Since then the issue with the license remains formally pending. The Turkish Ministry of Energy did not make this request.
Analysts in Ankara have not revealed whether it is a matter of time before Tayyip Erdogan sends a research ship to the area under the Turkish-Libyan memorandum.
The retired Admiral, former head of the Turkish General Staff and “architect” of the Turkish-Libyan memorandum, Jihad Yaici, has already made it clear in an interview with the Turkish newspaper Sözcü:
«When the competition for the license took place, we hoped that the Turkish Oil drilling would begin. But that did not happen …. If you stop exploring and drilling, we lose the Eastern Mediterranean. We cancel the Libyan agreement with our own hands».
So I will allow Tayyip Erdogan to “cancel Libya’s agreement with their own hands?»
So Athens is waiting for this move, it expects a president of Turkey to give the green light to the Ministry of Energy to move forward.
That is why Nikos Dendia took the initiative to invite the Libyan Foreign Minister to the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg today. He also arranged a tripartite meeting with German Foreign Minister Haiko Maas as he will hold a conference in Tripoli on Thursday (October 21st) with the participation of the participating countries at the Berlin conference last June.
Information says that in Tripoli that he will give the “present” and Mevlüt Tsavousoglu, since Turkey participated in the Berlin conference.
Which will mean that Dendia and Tsavousoglou will sit together for the first time on Libyan soil with the Turkish-Libyan memorandum on the table when, in theory or not, they will talk about the peace process in Libya.
News apGreece and the world, at the moment happen, at Newsbomb.gr.