Risk of conflict rises as Turkey keeps ship in Greek waters

‘If Greece pulls the trigger, will be the end of Nato. European countries should put pressure on Greece’

it

THE risk of armed conflict in the Aegean between Greece and Turkey is likely to escalate this week after Ankara said its vessel prospecting for oil and gas on the seabed would remain in the region until Thursday.

The Oruc Reis exploration vessel, escorted by warships, had been expected to withdraw on Sunday but the Turkish government said it would continue conducting seismic surveys, antagonising already tense relations with Greece.

Athens says the vessel, along with two auxiliary ships, is illegally exploring its waters and continental shelf.

Earlier this month, a Turkish frigate collided with a Greek frigate during a clumsy manoeuvre, in what Mevlut Cavusoglu, the Turkish foreign minister, claimed was a “provocation” but which Athens said was an accident.

In a growing standoff that is pulling in other powers, the United Arab Emirates sent four F-16 fighter jets to take part in military exercises with Greek forces near Crete yesterday.

France has already sent a frigate, helicopter carrier and Rafale fighter planes to the region to back up Greece, as tensions with Turkey rise to a level not seen since 1996, when the two countries nearly went to war over the disputed Imia islands in the Aegean.

Tensions have been worsened by a maritime doctrine nicknamed the “Blue Homeland” adopted by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey’s president. It envisages Turkey having a much greater say in the exploitation of the waters off its coastline, including areas claimed by Greece and Cyprus.

Heiko Maas, Germany’s foreign minister, will try to mediate the dispute today, travelling to both Athens and Ankara.

Greece and Turkey are both members of Nato but a military confrontation in the eastern Mediterranean would shatter the alliance, according to retired Rear Admiral Cem Gurdeniz, who helped outline the Blue Homeland strategy more than a decade ago.

“If Greece pulls the trigger, it will be the end of Nato,” he told AFP in Istanbul, implying that Turkey would withdraw from the alliance.

“European countries should put pressure on Greece so that it abandons” some of its maritime claims, he added.