Erdoğan maintaining illegal drilling in Eastern Mediterranean

Turkey insists to increase tensions over natural gas in the Eastern Mediterranean. It plans to conduct further drilling for gas in the region, thus maintaining its provocations.

Fatih challenging; Erdoğan threatening

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said the Turkish drilling ship Fatih would start drilling for oil in the Black Sea, defying international opposition to Turkish drilling in the area.

Erdoğan says the ship will drill in the area in the light of a maritime boundary delimitation deal his government signed with the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord.

He threatened to open his country's borders to over 4 million Syrian refugees living in Turkey to cross into Europe and flood the continent.

Meanwhile, Turkish Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Fatih Donmez said the Turkish Petroleum Corporation would start drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean.

A new Turkish drilling ship, he said, would go to the region later this year.

Escalation

The Turkish escalation aims at increasing tensions in the region. Turkey has been locked in disputes with Greece and Cyprus over natural resources in this region.

The Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, which was formed in early 2019 in Cairo, aims to sabotage Turkish ambitions in the region.

France applied for membership in the forum and the United States said it wants to gain an observer status in it. This gives power to the forum which aims at the fair distribution of wealth in the Eastern Mediterranean and the protection of this wealth.

The creation of the forum has also stifled Turkey's dreams to become an energy hub supplying Europe with its energy needs.

European warning

The European Union asked Turkey, meanwhile, to suspend its illegal drilling for gas off the coasts of Greece and Cyprus.

The union had previously frozen the assets of Turkish officials participating in the drilling operations and banned their entry into member states.

However, Turkey countered by acting more defiantly. This was why the European Union imposed economic sanctions on Ankara.