Egypt and Greece Reject Turkish-Libyan EEZ Claim

 

Egypt and Greece have rejected a bilateral accord first tabled in 2019, which seeks to establish a maritime boundary between Turkey and Libya in the Mediterranean.  The accord appears likely to be signed up to by the government in eastern Libya, having been agreed between Turkey and the internationally recognized government in western Libya six years ago. The purpose of the accord is to facilitate oil exploration, by establishing a boundary within the sea corridor claimed by Libya and Turkey.

When the accord was originally tabled in 2019, it was met with almost universal rejection. It was regarded as a breach of the International Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), by the United States, the EU, Russia and the Arab League amongst many, but in particular by Greece, Egypt and Cyprus because the Libyan-Turkish corridor was superimposed over their own UNCLOS-backed claims for 200-mile Exclusive Economic Zones.

The Turkish-Libyan accord is likely to be hotly contested, and it is not clear what lies behind the revived claim. It is possible that some of those who were originally vehemently opposed to the carve-up have now switched sides, conjecturing that under the Trump administration, potential economic gains could outweigh previous political understandings and the potential breaches of UNCLOS - and also believing that the revival of the Libyan-Turkish claim could become part of a settlement of Libya’s long-running political crisis.

Turkey is already in dispute with Greece and Cyprus over exploitation of oil and gas reserves to the south of Cyprus, among many other issues. Greece and Turkey (and Turkey's Ottoman predecessors) have spent centuries contesting territorial control over the region, most recently including the partition of Cyprus in 1974 and the ongoing dispute over islands and maritime zones in the Aegean. 

Top image: Libyan-Turkish claim area, dashed lines (TurkishFlame / CC BY 3.0)