The discovery in the last few years of large gas reserves in the region has whetted appetites in Ankara, which has been forcefully demanding its piece of the pie, even at the risk of contesting the limits of respective economic zones as well as provoking the EU’s intervention and threatening the region’s stability.
The human tragedy being played out on the Greek-Turkish border definitively buries one of the greatest achievements of international humanitarian law – and with the blessing of the European Union. The timing is good for the autocrat Erdoğan, whose blackmail over refugees is helping divert rumbling discontent in Turkish society.
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