Turkey would be even more determined to protect its territorial rights in the Eastern Mediterranean if the European Union decided to impose sanctions on it over offshore exploration, a senior Turkish Foreign Ministry official said.
The official, who requested anonymity, said sanctions would not deter Turkey and suggested they could imperil dialogue planned as soon as this month between Ankara and Athens over disputed maritime boundaries and oil and gas rights.
The warning came as EU leaders held a meeting in Brussels at which bloc member Cyprus had defied Germany and others to call for sanctions on Turkey over what it calls Ankara’s “gunboat diplomacy” and violations of its maritime shelf.
Tensions have simmered since Turkish and Greek frigates collided at sea in August near one of Turkey’s exploration vessels, though things have cooled a bit since Turkey and Greece, both members of NATO, said they would resume “exploratory talks” that ended in 2016.
The talks are an effort “to bring Greece into dialogue and finally Greece agreed to that, and we hope to resume those soon,” the official said.
But “if the EU applies sanctions this will not deter us. On the contrary this would increase our resolve and would be a negative stance on the part of the European Union,” he said.
“We will continue our offshore programme as we have been doing. Sanctions are not the right way (and) will not deter us to protect our rights to our continental shelf and also the rights of the Turkish Cypriots,” he added.
Speaking to parliament on Thursday, President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey preferred to resolve disagreements in the Eastern Mediterranean through dialogue and was not seeking tensions and clashes in the region.
REUTERS