Greece, Cyprus plan to impose sanctions against Turkey

CAIRO – 19 August 2020: The foreign ministers of Greece and Cyprus are discussing a list of sanctions their countries can impose against Turkey because of its illegal acts eastern the Mediterranean, Al Arabiyah reported Tuesday.

Cyprus had earlier criticized the European Union for adopting an "appeasement policy" when dealing with Turkey, whose ships keep entering Greek and Cypriot waters to explore drilling opportunities.

Cyprus Mail newspaper explained that such criticism follows the European Union's negative response to Greece's request to impose sanctions against Turkey for its gas search activities eastern the Mediterranean.

On August 6, Egypt’s Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry and his Greek counterpart, Nikos Dendias, signed an agreement on the demarcation of maritime borders between Egypt and Greece. In 2015, Egypt signed a demarcation agreement with Cyprus, and in June 2020, Greece and Italy signed a demarcation deal as well.

On the other hand, Turkey failed to reach an agreement with Greece as it wants to exclude Greek islands from the demarcation plan. Also, Turkey did not sign the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) so it cannot claim economic reserves in seawater.

In December 2019, Turkey and Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) signed an MoU on drilling eastern the Mediterranean. Yet, the legitimacy of the deal is questionable given the GNA is an interim non-elected government. Although it is recognized by the United Nations, it was due to expire in 2017. In its three-year term stated in 2014 Skhirat Agreement, it failed to end the civil war and fighting is still ongoing.