Greece’s navy held extensive preparedness exercises earlier this month, spanning from the Evros region in the northeast to Kastellorizo in the south, with the participation of the entire fleet. [Defense Ministry via InTime News]
On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis are set to meet in New York, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.
However, a few days ago, specifically on Sunday, September 14, it looked likely that the meeting would be canceled amid tensions over a planned “research” expedition by the Turkish Piri Reis vessel west of the Greek islands of Lesvos and Chios. The purpose, ostensibly, is to search for likely oil and natural gas reserves. Actually, it is part of Turkey’s tactics aiming to dispute Greek sovereignty over a large swath of the Aegean, by promoting Ankara’s position that islands do not have a continental shelf.
Confrontations between the nominal allies and eternal rivals have generally been toned down since early 2023 but bilateral relations have been complicated by a series of recent events that have irked Turkey: oil multinational Chevron’s bid for exploration of resources south of Crete and the Peloponnese, which effectively disputes the Turkish-Libyan memorandum delimiting maritime zones, and Turkey’s likely exclusion from EU’s Security Action for Europe (SAFE) defense procurement program are the main causes.
In the end, the existing communication channels between top and lower-level officials worked well: the meeting will take place and it seems very likely that Piri Reis will either remain anchored in the port of Izmir or limit its expedition to Turkish territorial waters at least until the end of the UN Assembly. It is also hoped that the two leaders will agree on a way to regulate actions in the Aegean in a way that would not encroach on either nation’s sovereignty and would be compatible with international law: this deal would include work on the Greece-Cyprus power grid connection.
Greek diplomacy is also closely monitoring Erdogan’s upcoming meeting with US President Donald Trump on Thursday: fully aware of Trump’s love of lucrative deals, Erdogan is offering to buy 300 Boeing aircraft on behalf of Turkish Airlines, the global leader in terms of international destinations served. Greek diplomats consider the move as a bid to extract a promise that the Congress-imposed block on its buying F-35 fighters will be lifted.
On its part, Greece is confident that its strong networking in Congress will help maintain the block, even if Trump weighs in in favor of the deal.