Reshaped After the Pandemic: Turkish Aggression in the Eastern Mediterranean

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic’s shake-up of domestic politics and international relations across the globe, Turkey is expanding its influence in the Eastern Mediterranean and creating challenging new conditions on the ground and offshore that the United States could struggle to address, and which threaten regional partners like Greece, Cyprus, Israel and Egypt. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan summarized these destabilizing ambitions last month when he announced “Turkey will be one of the outstanding countries in the world that will be reshaped after the pandemic.” Washington’s own lack of focus on the region has helped invite Ankara’s growing aggressiveness, which in turn worsens security competition in an energy-rich region that increasingly resembles the South China Sea – with Turkey more and more playing the role of China.

Despite its own COVID-related challenges, Washington cannot simply continue to ignore the pandemic’s effects on Turkish-driven regional instability. The United States should enhance its naval presence in the region writ large – including through stronger U.S. defense cooperation with Greece. Washington also should appoint a Special Envoy for the Eastern Mediterranean to promote the collaborative exploitation of regional energy resources – including by creating a clear counterweight to Turkey’s efforts to disrupt peaceful energy development – as well as devise a negotiated solution to the Libya conflict and address the growing humanitarian consequences of COVID-19 in the region.

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Πηγή: jinsa.org