An Assesment of Eastern Mediterranean Maritime Boundary Delimitation Agreement Between Turkey and Libya (original) (raw)

In recent years, the Eastern Mediterranean hydrocarbon discoveries is one of the hot topic. Related to it, maritime jurisdiction area disputes have occurred in the region. The most important one is the Turkey-Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) and Greek Cypriot State (GCA) dispute. Turkey, made an agreement with Libya on November, 2019 against ongoing dispute and unlawful activities. As a result of it, Turkey and Libya became coastal neighbors, and two littoral states. Agreement has strong impact on entire political and economic situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, particularly, regional and global actors competition on energy resources. Agreement will definitely change proxy war balances which is conducted by global actors such as the USA, Russia and the European Union (EU). The ongoing civil war in Libya is the active and passive component of this agreement. Regional and global actors reacted very sharply to the agreement because of their interest and plans about region are deteriorated. In this study, the impact of the agreement on Eastern Mediterranean hydrocarbon activities, regional and global actors, Libyan Civil War, Eastmed Pipeline project and the Turkey-TRNC-GCA dispute are evaluated. Agreement's legality is analyzed accompanying with Libya's political situation and diplomatic relations with Turkey. Finally, Turkey's important role and place in the Eastern Mediterranean is considered to explain the importance of the agreement.