The Mediterranean is on fire!

Ancara seems to have adopted a certain rhetoric which inaugurates a period of tension. The Turkish government is threatening to use even military force in order to cancel Cyprus’ decision to start drilling for natural gas. Egemen Bagis, the vice-president of the Turkish government, has said his country is even ready to dispatch its navy so as to block Cyprus’ plans, statements which Athens characterized as threatening.
 
At the moment, this is a very unsatisfactory development which is also causing concern because of the latest breach in Turkish-Israeli relations, as all drills will be co-funded by American and Israeli companies.
 
To Turkey, the fact that Athens and Tel Aviv decided to reinforce their military cooperation is a very upsetting factor. Moreover, on Sunday the Greek Defence minister Panos Beglitis will visit Israel and have talks with his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak, and other high-ranking officials of the country. He is expected to sign military deals and discuss the final details before Athens buys the “Spice” missiles. Also, Beglitis and Barak will finalize the common air force exercise programme of the next six months.
 
The present juncture of the sudden improvement of Greek-Israeli relations has not gone unnoticed, let alone the fact that on the day the Greek minister will be visiting Israel, the Israeli ambassador to Ancara will be heading home after Turkey decided to downgrade its diplomatic relations with the country.  
 
For now, Washington and Moscow are vowing to stay on Cyprus' side, being fully supportive of the island government’s decisions to move forward with the drillings, while at the same time nobody can say if Turkey wishes to become totally autonomous and ignore recommendations coming from the American and Russian sides.
 
According to Proto Thema newspaper information, a Turkish boat is in the area between the Greek islands of Kos and Rhodes right now, looking for natural gas, but for the moment it is sailing inside Turkish territorial waters.
 

What interests specialists the most is whether Turkey will try to create a diversion in order to stop or at least suspend the drilling.

The Greek ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement saying that the neighbouring country is behaving in an alarming manner, which could lead to the destabilization of the area in the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea.
 
On this occasion, the Greek Foreign Affairs ministry is also underlining the fact that Cyprus is free and entitled to exploit its natural wealth in accordance with International Law.