Turkey pushes East Mediterranean boundaries

The Erdogan regime’s maritime border agreement with Libya can only serve to ramp up regional tensions

Turkey has gone a step further in its East Mediterranean power play, signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the internationally recognised government in Libya on their joint maritime border. On the face of it, the MoU places a vast swathe of the Eastern Mediterranean Sea into Turkish hands, including not just the waters off Cyprus but around some Greek islands as well.  The Ankara authorities already asserts the right to search for hydrocarbons in any spot that Turkey sees as within its continental shelf area; for several months, its drill ships have been operating inside Cyprus’ economic exclusion zone (EEZ), with a promise of more to come.   Predictably, the Cypriot and Greek gov