Turkey submitted a request to the United Nations to register the Memorandum of Understanding that it signed with the internationally recognized Libyan Accord government at the end of last November regarding the demarcation of the maritime borders between the two countries.
According to Turkish diplomatic sources, Ankara submitted a request yesterday to the United Nations in order to register the memorandum of understanding signed between the two sides recently.
On November 27, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed two memoranda of understanding with the President of the Presidential Council of the Libyan Accord Government, Fayez al-Sarraj, relating to security and military cooperation and the definition of maritime jurisdiction.
The Turkish Parliament ratified the Memoranda of Understanding on December 5, as approved by the Presidential Council of the Government of Concord on the same day, and they entered into force officially on December 8.
Greece - one of the most vocal protesters of the agreement, accompanied by Egypt - resorted to the United Nations, and requested the European Union to impose sanctions on Turkey.
Immediately after the approval of the Memorandum of Understanding on the maritime spheres of influence, the Turkish president confirmed that his country would establish a maritime line with Libya, while Athens responded to the agreement by expelling the ambassador of its national reconciliation government.
In exchange for the diplomatic escalation by Greece, Erdogan said that Greece, Egypt and Israel cannot excavate in the Mediterranean without Turkey's permission after signing the Turkish-Libyan Memorandum of Understanding.
He also stressed that Turkey and Libya can carry out joint exploration activities in the exclusive economic zones off the shores of Cyprus in an area that includes large gas fields, stressing that his country has shown the world through a maritime agreement with Libya its intention to protect its rights under international law.