Foreign Desk Report
ANKARA: Turkey and Greece are unlikely to reach a compromise to appease tensions that have flared up between the NATO allies over hydrocarbon explorations in Eastern Mediterranean as both nations are not ready for concessions, analysts said.
Turkey has sent a research ship accompanied by warships prospecting between Cyprus and the Greek island of Crete, while Greece deployed its own naval vessels to the area. Greece and Turkey have long disagreed on overlapping claims on hydrocarbon resources in the region, with both sides holding conflicting views of how far their continental shelves extend in waters.
They have accused each other of being responsible for the stand-off, and no immediate settlement is in sight while Germany, the European Union’s rotating president, has stepped in as a mediator to prevent things from escalating further towards an unwanted confrontation. The disputed area is close to Turkey but Greece insists it belongs to Greece under international law and maritime regulations. Turkey says the rules are unfair since Greece only has the rights of the waters because of a few tiny islands that expand its legal reach.
Experts said that a war is unlikely, but so is a compromise on the thorny issue of disputed waters.
