Prof. Dr. Yucel Acer
"In fact, political and economic relations between Libya and Turkey are in good condition. After the delimitation agreement signed in 2019, agreements were made between Turkey and Libya, especially on energy cooperation. Those who are supporters of Haftar or other groups who are against the national consensus government have gradually started to work together with the national consensus government. Türkiye played a major role here, undoubtedly, the process of ensuring this unity is still continuing in Libya. There is a forward trend in this sense in terms of ensuring Libyan national unity and administrative unity. As a result, Libyan representatives "While the parliament was previously against these agreements, it has now approved this agreement. Therefore, I think that the agreements will continue from now on. Therefore, we can say that this is an important step in terms of the developments between Türkiye and Libya."
WHAT WAS GREECE'S REASON FOR OPPOSING THE AGREEMENT?
Greece strongly opposed Türkiye's 2019 maritime border agreement with Libya. The main reason for his opposition was as follows:
1. They were saying that the two countries could not make a delimitation agreement between Turkey and Libya because the coasts did not see each other. This was a reason.
2. They were saying that the agreement was not approved by the Libyan assembly of representatives. They evaluated it in the context of the invalidity of the agreement.
Now, it is of great importance for the parliament to approve the agreement. In terms of maritime borders, maritime jurisdictions and Greece's activities, Greece claims that the Aegean islands have equal status with Türkiye and that the continental shelf should be an exclusive economic zone. Due to this claim, the border between Turkey and Libya should not exist due to the continental shelves of the island of Rhodes, Meis, Karpathos Island and the island of Crete, as this border does not recognize exclusive economic zone areas beyond the territorial waters.
Therefore, it means that Türkiye's legal thesis that the islands should not have a continental shelf in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean and should not have an exclusive economic zone is definitely accepted by Libya. It weakens Greece's legal position against Türkiye in terms of drawing maritime borders in the Aegean Sea. This agreement with Libya attracted a great reaction from Greece. "Since 2019, Greece has made a lot of efforts to eliminate the agreement," he said.
EU SPEAK THROUGH GREECE'S MOUTH!
Evaluating the statements of the President of the EU Commission, Acer said, "The President of the EU Commission Council made a statement. What might catch your attention here is this:
Those who violate the maritime jurisdictions of our members, (Actually, this is what Greece and the GKR section made the EU say: the islands have a continental shelf. They say that they are violating the rights of Turkey and Libya by ignoring them.) They made Greece say this through the mouth of the EU. "This shows that the Greek Cypriot side of Greece and the EU are disturbed in this context."
After this statement, we can expect reactions from Greece, Greek Cypriot Administration and the EU. What kind of reactions we may encounter:
"My guess is that Greece has an approach to the south of the island of Crete, trying to expand the border towards Libya by providing full authority on the island of Crete and giving it a continental shelf. While the border between the Libyan mainland and the island of Crete should be a border that is very close to the island of Crete and gives little continental shelf to Crete, according to international law, Greece proposes a line against Libya there as well. As a reaction to this agreement, Greece will take some concrete steps to prevent its government from appearing weak. One of them is:
- They can actually start some hydrocarbon exploration activities based on the border tried to be imposed on Libya in the south of the island of Crete. "At the same time, the Mitsotakis Government may take an action to increase the territorial waters from 6 miles to 12 miles south of the island of Crete in order to show itself strong," he said.
Türkiye FAIRLY SAYS THAT TERRITORIAL WATERS SHOULD NOT BE INCREASED TO 12 MILES IN THE AEGEAN WATERS!
Referring to the principles that Greece can implement against the agreement, Acer also talked about Türkiye's thesis in the seas:
"Türkiye has long been saying that territorial waters in the Aegean Sea should not be increased to 12 miles and that this would be against justice. Therefore, Türkiye has a definite stance on this issue. Greece has never extended its territorial waters above 6 miles.
But the south of Crete is not actually the Aegean Sea. Greece will use it to disturb Türkiye and increase it to 12 miles. Because they increased it to 12 miles in the Ionian Sea between Italy and Greece. They may give the message that we are slowly coming towards the Aegean. Türkiye will of course react to this. Therefore, Greece may take such steps. "The EU and Greece will support each other and try to limit Türkiye's rights in the region and put pressure on its agreements with Libya."
EGYPT ALSO OBJECTED TO THIS AGREEMENT MADE BY Türkiye WITH LIBYA!
Egypt's reaction to this agreement between Libya and Türkiye was immediate. Evaluating Egypt's reaction, Acer said:
"Because Egypt, just like Greece, has an approach towards Libya that limits and reduces Libya's maritime areas. In 2022, Egypt published a line regarding the border between it and Libya in its Presidential Decree. This border includes Egypt's demands. This request was rejected by Libya. Because the border proposed in that declaration gives Libya less continental shelf. Here, the agreement between Türkiye and Libya does not comply with Egypt's demand. Therefore, Egypt was also opposing the Türkiye-Libya agreement. One of Egypt's justifications was that the Libyan Parliament did not approve it. But when he saw this approval, he was stuck in Egypt. Therefore, they continue their objections. "Türkiye's agreement with Libya seems to have strengthened the possibility of new tensions in maritime areas and some counter-steps."
ACER: THE EU'S DECLARATION OF THE AGREEMENT INVALID HAS NO LEGAL VALUE!
"The EU does not have the authority to consider an agreement with Türkiye and Libya as legally invalid. This is a completely political statement. The EU is not our interlocutor there because the EU does not have a common maritime jurisdiction policy. We do not or will not make a border agreement with the EU. We make border agreements with states and countries in the region. Whether we are a member of the EU or not, according to international law, we have to make bilateral agreements on a one-to-one basis. Our interlocutor here is not the European Union in the legal sense. Whether the EU recognizes the discourse as a purely political discourse or not does not concern us very much. Therefore, I evaluate this discourse of the EU as speaking with Greece's mouth. But obviously it has no legal value. Türkiye's attitude towards the Aegean and Greek islands has been the same since the early 1970s. We clearly applied this approach in the field, both in the agreement we made with Libya and in the agreement we made with the TRNC. "We showed it on the field," he said.
