- Written by COLMER KONSTANTINOS
Turkey, in its attempt to secure its geopolitical position as a "regional power" in the Mediterranean, suffered two political defeats: It failed to be included in the European SAFE equipment program, and it failed to cancel the declaration of an EEZ in the median line of the sea, between Cyprus and Lebanon.
The European Commission rejected Turkey's application to participate in SAFE, fearing that any proposal would face a Greek and Cypriot veto - it did not need a third (from France) to be excluded along with Britain - and thus the neighbor was left out of the financing of this war program, which is directed against Greece.
Of course, Turkey still has the option of participating in the armaments program of one of the 27 participating EU countries through a bilateral agreement, but on the one hand, Erdogan's prestige has been damaged, and on the other hand, the participation will concern 35% of a sub-program, which will not exceed 10-15 billion euros. "Crisps" in other words, compared to what the German government promised him, which also failed in its blackmail. Here, Kyriakos Mitsotakis deserves a thumbs up, for not giving in to the well-known blackmail.
Moreover, the Turkish threats against Cyprus also failed, firstly because the demarcation of EEZ between the Republic of Cyprus and Lebanon concerned two sovereign member states of the UN and was done bilaterally, exactly as the international law of the sea UNCLOS provides since 1982, but it could also be done unilaterally. Secondly, with the EEZ agreement, the interests of the Turkish Cypriots are taken into account and protected. It is enough for them to return to the Cyprus federation equally and not as a dependency of Turkey.
Cyprus' status as a member of the EU fully ensures the participation of all the Cypriot people in the benefits that may arise from the exploitation of the EEZ. Turkey is only entitled to the harmless passage of its ships through the Lebanese-Cypriot EEZ.
The American ambassador's interview
In one self-proclaimed "interview" of the American ambassador in Ankara, Tom Barak stated that he intends to work as a welder "two bricks" – unfortunate wording about Greece and Turkey by the ambassador. However, this will coincide with the rapid deterioration of President Trump's popularity in America, and in the new year there are elections there, for the renewal of 1/3 of the members of the American House, so Trump may lose control of Congress.
It will therefore be somewhat difficult to begin the well-known peace-brokering “deals” of various partisans in Washington and Ankara to achieve a semblance of “reconciliation” between the two countries. One of which has unacceptable claims against the other, which claims that the only difference with Turkey is the definition of the European continental shelf in the Aegean. There are others, of course, but they are not of the present.
Poor Armenopoulos wrote in Dekadeltos that the one who suffers damage through his own negligence is not entitled to compensation. This is the case of his successors in Byzantium, who think that they are still living in the era of Suleiman the Magnificent.
Source
https://slpress.gr/ethnika/efxaristoume-den-t ha-paroume-k-presvi/
photo KATHIMERINI.GR, AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, https://www.kathimerini.gr/world/563370811/toyrkia-ipa-o-dealmaker-presvis-kai-oi-prosdokies-tis-agkyras/
