At the heart of these worsening differences are many agreements that raised a lot of confusion, the most recent of which was an agreement to demarcate the maritime borders between Greece and Egypt, an agreement that Turkey considered invalid for it because it violated its maritime rights.
Episode (6/8/2020) of the "Scenarios" program, wondered whether the agreement signed by Egypt and Greece to demarcate the maritime borders between them fuels tensions between the conflicting parties, and what are the legal ways to solve them? How can any failure to reduce tension be reflected in the entire Eastern Mediterranean region and on future relations between Ankara and the European Union?
Professor of International Relations, Ali Bakir, considered that the recent agreement signed between Egypt and Greece introduces Egypt as a major clashing factor in the equation that was confined between Greece and Libya on the one hand, and Greece and Turkey on the other hand.
Bakir explained that Egypt with this agreement has become in direct conflict with Turkey and Libya, which further complicates the scene in the eastern Mediterranean, and may push it towards militarization.
On the other hand, political science professor Aref Al-Obaid said that this agreement is not a result of today, pointing to several clashes between the governments of Egypt and Turkey. He added that the talk two weeks ago about Turkish-Greek negotiations was what prompted the latter to try to arm this agreement before the start of these negotiations.
Al-Obaid considered that this agreement has drawbacks, most notably that it destroys the Greek dream of linking Greek territorial waters with Cypriot territorial waters, and that the agreement does not talk about the island of Castelo Rizo, which is the heart of the conflict between Turkey and Greece.
The political science professor mentioned that the agreement also has positive ones, including that Greece is trying to show the agreement as a diplomatic victory, and it has obtained what he considered sovereign rights in the Crete and Rhodes Islands.
For her part, Director of the Institute of International Affairs in Rome Natalie Tochi said that the Turkish-Greek dispute dates back to previous decades, noting that it is in the interest of Greece, according to international law.
Tochi - who is also the author of several books on European-Turkish relations - pointed out that the discovery of important sources of energy in the eastern Mediterranean was what sparked the conflict in the past few years, in addition to that there are geopolitical dimensions of the current dispute regarding Libya, and alliances between Egypt, Greece, Israel and the UAE On the one hand, and Turkey and the Libyan reconciliation government in Tripoli, on the other.