On November 17, 2022, the plane of Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias landed at Tripoli International Airport, carrying the Greek minister, who was on a visit to Libya to meet with the head of the Libyan Presidency Council, Muhammad al-Munfi.

When Dendias learned that he was being received at the airport by Libyan Foreign Minister Naglaa Manqoush, he did not get off the plane.

Arguing that Manqoush, who was receiving him, signed the hydrocarbon agreement between Turkey and Libya on October 3, 2022, Dendias flew his plane to Benghazi.

Libyan Foreign Minister Naglaa Manqoush was waiting for Dendias to receive him in accordance with international diplomatic norms, but the Greek Foreign Minister refused to get off the plane and returned as he came without any explanation!

We regret this behavior of the Greek Minister. The Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs will take appropriate diplomatic steps and measures to protect the sovereignty of the Libyan state.

As for the Greek media, it was reported that Dendias wanted to meet with the President of the Libyan Presidency Council, Muhammad al-Munfi, without meeting the Tripoli government recognized by the United Nations, and that when he learned that the Libyan Foreign Minister Najla Manqoush was receiving him;

He canceled his meeting with exile and went to Benghazi.

Dendias acted in a manner contrary to diplomatic norms, and the Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement on this matter, stating that the ministry “granted the Greek Foreign Minister permission to visit Libya on November 17, 2022 despite his harsh policies and positions against the interests of the Libyan state, as well as His unbalanced statements that affect the sovereignty of Libya and the aspirations of the Libyan people.The Libyan Foreign Minister Naglaa Manqoush was waiting for him to receive him in accordance with international diplomatic norms, but the Greek Foreign Minister refused to get off the plane and returned as he came without any explanation!We regret this behavior of the Greek Minister, you will The Libyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes appropriate diplomatic steps and measures to protect the sovereignty of the Libyan state.

Dendias, who was conducting negotiations to cancel the memorandum of agreement defining the scope of maritime powers - which was signed on November 27, 2019 between Haftar, the Tobruk Council and Turkey - and to sign agreements with Greece instead, it seems that he was not successful in his endeavors either.

Today, I am explaining to you this stage of agreements that angered Greece.

Early beginnings

The issue of defining economic zones with Libya was not in the circle of interest in Turkish public opinion, although it was always present at the official levels and state agencies.

Before the outbreak of the events of the Arab Spring, I took the initiative to write a research paper in 2009 - which I completed in 2010 and published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal in 2011 - entitled "The Role of Libya and its Impact in Determining Maritime Powers in the Eastern Mediterranean", in which I stated that Turkey and Libya, which have opposite coasts, can sign an agreement. Determine the scope of maritime powers and exclusive economic zones, and that this will be in the interest of both countries.

In the month of October 2021, this research paper was presented with the maps that I prepared in this regard during a high-level meeting of the President of the Republic, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was the Prime Minister at that time, and he said at the time that it was appropriate to “present this agreement to the Libyan side in shortest time".

Gaddafi's response

This was followed by Mr. Erdogan's visit to Libya in November 2010, during which he explained our proposals on defining the scope of maritime powers and exclusive economic zones, with explanatory maps prepared by the Prime Minister himself.

Libyan President Muammar Gaddafi and Mr. Erdogan agreed to sign this agreement, which they were convinced would gain vast maritime areas for the two countries, and both issued instructions to officials from their sides to prepare for the signing of this agreement.

However, despite this mutual agreement, the turmoil in Libya that ended with the fall of Gaddafi prevented the signing of the agreement at that time.

Over the past years, I have tried hard to keep attention on this subject, both at the official and unofficial level, in terms of conferences, scientific articles, and lectures.

Finally, after the conditions in Libya returned to their calmness and during the period of my assumption of command of the Turkish Naval Forces Staff, I sought to explain the importance of this subject to the Turkish public opinion in an easy, brief and understandable way, starting with the publication of my book "The Concept of the Enclave Economic Zone... Question and Answer", which I began writing in 2018. And I published it in 2019. This book played an important role in shaping public opinion in Turkey’s awareness of the importance of this subject.

Then I wrote my book "Libya, Turkey's Neighbor across the Sea." In fact, this book had a great impact on public opinion, and the proposal for an exclusive economic zone agreement began to be seriously adopted by the relevant circles.

In conjunction with all these circumstances that took place in 2018-2019, I remember the late Ozdemir Bayraktar, a true patriot, with compassion and gratitude, who strongly supported my proposal on the exclusive economic zone agreement with Libya.

The late Bayrakdar was concerned not only about the agreement with Libya, but about everything related to the blue homeland and the right and interests of Turkey in its regional and economic waters. He encouraged me to write and distributed this book and other books of mine to everyone. He was a truly patriotic person, may God have mercy on him and grant him paradise. .

During this period, the issue of signing the agreement with Libya was again taken up by President Erdogan, who was well versed in this issue and was aware of it, since he was prime minister. In this context, I do not forget the efforts of the Turkish Minister of Defense, Mr. Hulusi Akar, who carried out shuttle diplomacy in fact to achieve an important agreement for the two peoples. Libyan and Turkish.

Fruiting after 10 years

Finally, thanks to the clear and firm will of the President of the Republic, the agreement was signed in Istanbul on November 27, 2019 under the title "Memorandum of Agreement between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Libyan Government of National Accord on defining the scope of maritime powers in the Mediterranean."

This was followed by the ratification of this agreement by the Turkish People's Assembly and the Libyan Presidency Council (in Libya, ratification of the agreement by the Presidency Council is sufficient) on December 6, 2019, and thus the legal procedures were completed.

I would like to point out here that this agreement was accepted in the Turkish National Assembly by the ruling party and the opposition alike, i.e. it was carried out by national consensus.

I was very happy because the efforts that we started have finally borne fruit, since 2009 until the signing of the agreement on November 27, 2019. I did not leave an opportunity, forum, council, or platform except that I mentioned, spoke and wrote about the need to expedite the signing of the agreement to limit the scope of maritime powers. And the economic zones between Turkey and Libya, and stressed that this is in the interest of the two countries.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan summed up this stage in his speech at the leadership of the "Kolcuk" arsenal during the ceremony of withdrawing the first submarine "Piri Rais" to the water and the first iron smelting of the fifth ship "Recep Ali Reis" within the "modern style submarine" project, saying:

“The reports, maps, articles and books written by Admiral Jihad Yayji, who holds the position of Chief of Staff of the Naval Forces, are clear; we spoke to the Libyan President at that time Gaddafi about the map and we agreed on this issue. The overlap between the scope of powers between us and Libya through the maritime convergence gives us this right In accordance with international legislation and practices, the text of this agreement has been delayed in a legal framework due to the turmoil in the region.

Turkish shield

Finally, thanks to this signed agreement, Libya and Turkey have a common maritime border.

I can consider the agreement signed between Turkey and Libya as a "Turkish shield" from the West.

And it became one of the most obvious steps indicating Turkey's policy making in the eastern Mediterranean and its ability to overturn the plans of other policy makers.

So to speak, we can say that Turkey has overturned the geopolitical chess board and rearranged the stones in the eastern Mediterranean, and I believe that the importance of this historical agreement will be better understood by future generations, in all the banks of the eastern Mediterranean. With this agreement, the scope of Turkey's jurisdiction has been increased from The western maritime borders in the eastern Mediterranean are estimated at 189,000 square kilometers, which is an area equivalent to a quarter of the territory of our republic, if we take into consideration that Turkey's land area is 783,000 square kilometers.

With this step, Turkey and Libya have achieved a position in which they have turned all the situation in the region to their advantage, and thus directly affected energy geopolitics, and achieved strategic gains in terms of defining the scope of exclusive economic zones.

This step was also a message showing that we are using legal and diplomatic means to restore our common rights to the Libyan and Turkish people. This agreement gave Libya an estimated 40,000 square kilometers of maritime space, more than what Greece sought to limit it to.

And if Libya makes an agreement with Greece in the next stage, based on this agreement it concluded with Turkey;

Its gain from the maritime domain could reach 40,000 square kilometers (equivalent to 4 times the area of ​​the island of Cyprus), in light of the allegations.

Rather, the information being circulated is that this marine area, which Libya gained, contains billions of dollars worth of natural gas.

Libya gained more maritime space than it would have if it agreed with Greece.

In addition, this agreement has become a model for other countries in the eastern Mediterranean.

If Egypt concluded an agreement similar to that of Libya with Turkey, it would gain about 21,000 square kilometers from the maritime space compared to what it would gain if it concluded this agreement with Greece without taking Turkey's rights into account.

As for Palestine and Israel;

Their gain from concluding this agreement with Turkey instead of the Greek Republic of Cyprus is about 5 thousand square kilometers.

the efforts of an angry Athena

After the signing of the memorandum of agreement on defining the scope of maritime powers on November 27, 2019, Greece sought every effort to nullify this agreement concluded between Turkey and Libya and is still doing everything in this way, as Greece has lost what it was aiming for in the "Svilla" map. Alleged also lost the opportunity to violate 40 thousand km of Libyan maritime space.

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Motjacs stated during his visit to his Libyan counterpart Abdelhamid Dabaiba, saying that "Libya's neighbor is not Turkey, but Greece. We do not recognize the agreement to limit the scope of maritime powers concluded between Turkey and Libya; Libya must withdraw from its agreement with Turkey and instead agree with Greece".

But he only got this answer from his Libyan counterpart: "We will continue our agreement with Ankara regarding defining the scope of maritime powers."

Libyan Prime Minister Abdel Hamid al-Dabaiba had said during his statement in Qatar on May 5, 2021: "We do not agree with Greece about the maritime agreement between Libya and Turkey."

On January 24, 2022, the "EastMed" project, which was initiated by Greece to nullify the agreement between Turkey and Libya, failed, and the Greek Foreign Minister Dendias' anger reached its extreme when he said, in his interview with the United Nations Special Representative in Libya, Stephanie Williams, on February 8: February 2022: “The Turkey-Libya agreement is not valid and illegal.”

The Turks took their agreement with the Libyans a step further. On October 3, 2022, and based on the agreement of November 27, 2019, the "Turkish-Libyan Hydrocarbon Agreement" was signed.

This agreement was the last campaign in the geopolitical chessboard established by Turkey and Libya, and eliminated the illegal ambitions of some in the eastern Mediterranean.

The amount of hydrocarbons expected to be extracted from the region is estimated at approximately $30 billion, according to the expectations of researchers and study centers.

In contrast to these historical developments and steps, Greece began to act nervously. Before the agreement dried up, the Greek foreign minister met the US ambassador to Athens, and followed that with a visit to Egypt on October 9, 2022, trying to block this agreement.

Dendias added during his statement in Cairo, claiming that "the areas in which Turkey will carry out research and exploration work are not Libyan but Greek waters, and that Turkey cannot carry out research work there, and therefore Libya also does not have a right in those areas."

This is, in fact, an acknowledgment that Greece does not attach the slightest importance to Libya's interests and rights, and that its concern is to obtain maritime areas from Libya.

The Libyan public street and Arab public opinion must realize the reality of these intentions.

In conclusion, luxury and security are linked to the seas.

As Khair al-Din Barbaros Pasha said:

"He who rules the seas rules the world."

"He who rules the waters rules the earth."