France supports Greece and responds to the Turkish military escalation in Mediterranean

France decided to escalate its military steps against Turkey, to deter it from illegal gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, as French President Emmanuel Macron announced on August 13, 2020, to support his country's military forces in the Mediterranean with two Rafale aircraft and a Lafayette ship to monitor the region.

Macron stressed his country's commitment to the standards of international law, and that the military reinforcement aims to impose security and control over the region after escalating tensions between two European Union countries: Turkey and Greece, against the background of the former violation of the latter's sovereignty over its territorial waters.

Macron's statements came through an official statement reported by the presidency about decisions taken after a phone call between Macron and the Prime Minister of Greece, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who expressed his annoyance with the Turkish actions in the eastern Mediterranean, and for his part, Macron expressed his fear of Turkish explorations that Ankara is striving in its work off the coasts of Greece and Cyprus.

Macron called on Ankara to immediately stop its illegal activities in the Mediterranean, and to stop illegal gas exploration, calling on it to refrain from unilateral actions and to start a meaningful and peaceful dialogue with the Greek side, its partner in NATO.

The French escalation comes just three days after Ankara announced the sailing of the main Eurwatch ship from Antalya in the southwest of the country towards the eastern Mediterranean, as well as announcing on August 12, 2020 the ship’s start of work in the region, which poses a serious threat from the Turkish side to the European neighbors.

On his official page on the social networking site "Twitter", Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Fatih Donmaz, said that the Turkish ship started its work by applying two- and three-dimensional seismic surveys, activating seismic surveys to map the seabed, and obtain samples of it off the coast of Greece and Cyprus to explore for exploration. Gas, adding that the ship was accompanied by pieces of the Turkish Navy.

For its part, Greece announced its categorical rejection of what Ankara is practicing in the region, as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated that moving the seismic survey ship in the disputed region represents a dangerous escalation threatening the security and stability of the eastern Mediterranean, and confirms Turkey's clear determination to destabilize the region, adding: that the war pieces of Turkey were in August 12, 2020 Just 60 miles south of the Greek island of Kastelorizo ​​is border crossing.

The prime minister is pushing to move the European Union to take a strict stance towards what Turkey is practicing on the Greek continental shelf, calling on Brussels to hold an emergency meeting to urge Ankara to deport the ship Oroch from the eastern Mediterranean, as this represents an outright violation.

 Once again, demands are mounting for the necessity to activate clear and strong sanctions against Ankara for what it commits in the eastern Mediterranean, but will Brussels leaders agree to deter it this time, or will the gas pipelines stretching between the countries of the Union and Russia through Ankara, along with economic interests, disrupt the decision ?, In addition to these Turkish violations Another crack in NATO was its failure to punish Ankara for its hostile action against the French battleship in the Mediterranean, which prompted Paris to suspend its naval actions in the alliance, describing it as "clinically dead."

Accordingly; Turkey's ambitions in the Eastern Mediterranean cause a major rift between the countries of the Union, which are still unable to punish Ankara, as well as distracting NATO's efforts to object Paris to its inability to stop the Turkish incursion into the region and its violation of UN resolutions in Libya.

However, the recent escalation on the part of Ankara prompted the European Union to confirm its support for Athens in rejecting the presence of the Oroch ship off its regional coasts, as the European Union Foreign Minister Josep Borrell said that the maritime borders are determined through negotiations and not wars and violations, and the Union also decided to hold an exceptional meeting on August 14 to discuss The future of the Mediterranean, will Turkey push itself into the basket of international sanctions?

Commenting on the recent escalation, the researcher at Cardiff Metropolitan University, Abdullatif Darwish, said in a media statement that the tension between Greece and Turkey took a clear military turn to pressure Athens to obtain political gains, pointing out that Erdogan changed the naval vessels on the coasts, replacing them with old pieces to absorb any possibility. For a strong military strike by Greece against the background of this escalation as a kind of military tactic that suggests that the region is on the brink of war.

Despite this, the researcher pointed out that Europe fears the outbreak of a military conflict in the region that may affect the economic situation in the region and the popularity of the euro in light of a crisis that exists mainly against the background of the spread of the Corona virus, and therefore it may necessarily push towards solving the crisis politically.