Libya (GNA)–Turkey maritime deal

Expectations are low ahead of Tuesday's meeting between Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. 

Indicative of the difficulties is a reminder by Turkey's energy minister, Alparslan Bayraktar, of Ankara's firm positions on Eastern Mediterranean issues.

Turkey is interested in an offer from Tripoli to carry out energy exploration offshore Libya, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Wednesday.

"Libya has offered to us to work with our seismic vessels offshore. Frankly, we are warm to this. So we can be in the Libyan offshore to carry out seismic work," he told the state-owned Anadolu news agency.

News reports state that Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi will visit Turkey on September 4 and meet with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which is seen as another sign of Ankara's rapprochement with Cairo.

However, Turkey's reconciliation with Egypt is also of concern to Athens.

In an interview published on Friday by the Turkish newspaper Sabah, Turkey's Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced that Ankara is seeking to conduct offshore surveys for hydrocarbons in Libyan maritime zones.

After the naval incident in the southeastern Aegean, where a flotilla of Turkish ships gathered near two Greek islands, Kassos and Karpathos, claiming that a research ship had violated its continental shelf, Turkey insists that it was the one that gave the ship permission to conclude its research and depart, implying that the Greek navigational warning that described the research ship's mission

Under the surveillance of units from both the Greek and Turkish Navies, the Italian ship “Teliri” is laying fiber optic cables within the potential Greek Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and continental shelf.

Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler has reiterated Turkey's resolve to protect its rights within the so-called Blue Homeland region. 

"As we persist in combating terrorism, we safeguard our borders. And without any compromise, we defend our rights and interests in the Blue Homeland," he said.

Turkey will not neglect its energy interests in the eastern Mediterranean and Libya, despite prioritizing the natural gas Sakarya field in the Black Sea, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on Thursday.

Turkey's Ministry of Education is also including the Turkey-Libyan maritime memorandum in the new educational program for school students, along with the "Blue Homeland" dogma that expresses Ankara's claims in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.

The interim government of Tripoli claims Greece is conducting illegal prospecting south of Crete in areas it says are under Libya's jurisdiction. 

The issue was raised last week through a letter sent to the Greek ambassador, Nikos Garilidis.