Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar revealed on Thursday that Turkey has proposed “joint exploitation of the wealth-producing Aegean Sea with Greece.” He added he has received positive response.
Speaking to journalists after the extraordinary meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, Akar said:
“This is important in terms of the prosperity of the people of the two countries and the sharing of the beauties and riches of the Aegean. There are tourism, fishing and many other riches. We are in favor of using these together, we said this.”
“We have received a positive response from our interlocutor in this sense,” Akar said most likely hinting to his Greek counterpart Nikos Panagiotopoulos with whom he had a brief meeting on Wednesday in Brussels.
“We expect them to move forward in this direction. We are constructive, positive, this is our approach,” Akar said daily ethnos and other media report.
From the Greek side, i.g. MoD Panagiotopoulos, it only became known that the two ministers agreed on agreed on the fourth round of talks on Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) and reducing tensions in the region, but nothing about “joint exploitation of the Aegean.
It is quite interesting that while addressing the nation on energy support measures on Wednesday evening, PM Kyriakos Mitsotakis made a short note on “exploitation of national natural gas resources with economic interest.” He said that relevant announcements will be made soon.
Mitsotakis met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Istanbul on Sunday in what it seemed to have been a last minute invitation by the latter. However, according to an exclusive report by news website Eideiseis.gr the meeting was under secret preparation for the last two months und under exclusion of the Greek foreign ministry.
Mitsotakis and Erdogan had reportedly agreed to decrease tension in the East Mediterranean and the Aegean Sea and support stability in the area in the shadow of the war in Ukraine.
- “joint exploitation of the Aegean” requires agreements on the delimitation of the continental shelf and demarkation of Exclusive Economic Zones. Greece will have to abolish its right to expand its territorial waters to 12 nautical miles and Turkey will have to revoke its casus belli threat against Greece. …and World Peace!
So far, Thursday noon, Akar’s statements have not been dismissed or confirmed by the Greek government side. There are no reactions even by the opposition parties.
UPDATE: Late on Thursday, Greek Defense Minister Panagiotopoulos dismissed Akar’s claims.
PS Apparently they are all petrified by Akar’s bombshell, try to recover and look into it.
Some Greeks are wondering on social media whether the Greek MoD is authorized to make such crucial agreements or the Prime Minister can unilaterally proceed without consultation with the Foreign Ministry and other institutions.
Turkey sees what is happening to its friend Pukin and it seems that Erdogan has changed his mind about being a martyr.