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As a fragile ceasefire in Libya hangs over the fate of a peace conference to be held this Sunday in Berlin, one of the actors in the conflict - Turkey - takes the risk of worsening the tensions. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Thursday, January 16, that his country would begin "drilling as soon as possible " in a disputed oil-rich eastern Mediterranean area under an agreement signed with the government of Tripoli .
From our correspondent in Istanbul
By deploying dozens of soldiers to Libya from the start of January, Recep Tayyip Erdogan put into practice one of the two agreements concluded at the end of November with the Government of National Union (GNA), based in Tripoli. The Turkish president is now waiting for the implementation of the other agreement signed the same day. A maritime delimitation agreement, seen as a condition and a justification for Turkey's military support to the GNA .
This controversial agreement allows Ankara to claim rights over oil-rich areas in the eastern Mediterranean. It is hotly contested by other regional countries , notably Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and Israel. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, however, intends to send ships " as soon as possible " to this area to carry out drilling, at the risk of aggravating tensions.
The Turkish president maintains that his agreement with Tripoli would make illegal the countries which would like "to make explorations, of drilling or to pass a gas pipeline in the zone located between the continental plates of Turkey and Libya without their endorsement ". A clear reference to the EastMed gas pipeline project , which aims to export to Greece, then to the rest of Europe, gas extracted off the coast of Cyprus and Israel.