Turkey’s redeployment of an energy research vessel into disputed Eastern Mediterranean waters is a “calculated provocation” of Greece that undermines NATO unity, according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s team.
“The United States deplores Turkey’s Oct. 11 announcement of renewed Turkish survey activity in areas over which Greece asserts jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean,” State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said Tuesday. “Turkey’s announcement unilaterally raises tensions in the region and deliberately complicates the resumption of crucial exploratory talks between our NATO Allies Greece and Turkey.”
That statement is an emphatic rebuke of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s posture toward his neighboring NATO ally, just weeks after Pompeo toured the region in an implicit show of support for Greece. Turkey’s pro-government media denounced it as a “biased” declaration from the United States, but the bulletin suggests the degree to which American officials see the danger of a military confrontation between Athens and Ankara.
“Coercion, threats, intimidation, and military activity will not resolve tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean,” Ortagus said.
The dispute over economic rights is complicated by the fact that Greece has sovereignty over islands near the coast of mainland Turkey. But Erdogan’s use of military vessels to escort a research ship to enforce his claims has roiled the transatlantic alliance with the threat of an unprecedented conflict between two nations bound by NATO’s Article 5 collective defense pledge.
“It was close,” Greek lawmaker Dimitrios Kairidis told the Washington Examiner. “It was a serious mobilization of forces, and the Greeks took it seriously … we had the fleet out for many days.”
Turkey withdrew the ship under the threat of European Union sanctions, but the decision to redeploy the vessel has jeopardized the potential for negotiations between the rival claimants.
“The Turkish leadership has shown it is not a credible interlocutor,” Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said Tuesday. “Its calls for dialogue are only a pretext. The international community must judge [Ankara] on the basis of actions, not words. We must all face reality before it is too late.”
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who had planned to visit Athens and Ankara this week in an attempt to mediate between the two countries but canceled his trip to Turkey, also rebuked Erdogan.
“Turkey’s back and forth between escalation and a policy of detente has to stop,” Maas said Tuesday. “It is up to Turkey to create the conditions for talks.”
Ortagus’s statement aligned with the Greek and German pressure. “We urge Turkey to end this calculated provocation and immediately begin exploratory talks with Greece,” she said. “Unilateral actions cannot build trust and will not produce enduring solutions.”
