Turkey and Greece have established a mechanism to avoid open military confrontation in the Eastern Mediterranean. This is stated on the NATO website.
According to the organization's secretary general Jens Stoltenberg, the de-escalation mechanism will allow the parties to avoid incidents and clashes in the disputed areas. Thus, NATO wants to create a field for future peace negotiations.
In particular, in order to avoid war, “hot lines” were established between representatives of Ankara and Athens, which will allow them to quickly respond to incidents at sea.
The controversy between Turkey and Greece over the coast in the Eastern Mediterranean is associated with the right to drill the shelf. The European Union threatens Ankara with sanctions for illegal drilling activities. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in turn, says that Athens does not respect the agreement with Ankara. According to him, Greece itself resumed drilling operations contrary to the agreements. Due to the aggravation of the situation in mid-August, France transferred military equipment to the Mediterranean to support the Greek side.
For the first time, contradictions over the Eastern Mediterranean arose in 1974 – then a coup d'etat took place in Cyprus, associated with an attempt by Greece to annex the island. Turkey sent troops to the north of Cyprus and proclaimed a Turkish Cypriot federal state there, later it was renamed the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC). The rest of the island is now under the control of the government of the Republic of Cyprus. Turkey has repeatedly called for joint development of deposits by Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, allowing for cooperation with Russia.
