Two years ago we marked the 98th anniversary of the Great Offensive (Büyük Taarruz in Turkish), the turning point of the Turkish War of Independence. A century after Mustafa Kemal Atatürk spoke the famous words “armies, your first target is the Mediterranean, forward,” some states took action to cut us off from the Mediterranean.
The fighter jets of France and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were stationed in Crete. French President Emmanuel Macron warned Turkey to stop looking for energy in the Eastern Mediterranean.
At a joint press conference with then-German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis waved his finger, saying, “We are not engaged in dialogue, we will ask the EU to impose sanctions on Turkey.” While the agreements determining maritime jurisdiction areas they made with Italy and Egypt were voted on in the Greek parliament, they declared that they were preparing to extend their territorial seas to 12 nautical miles. A Greek maritime territory of 12 nautical miles meant claiming that the Turks had no right to fish in the Aegean.
It has been a year and a half since then. So much has changed that first Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) and then-Israeli President Isaac Herzog made visits to Ankara. Even Mitsotakis was received in Istanbul. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made his first official visit earlier this week. All of these figures came bearing messages of cooperation with Turkey.
Getting to this point has not been easy. While Greece was challenging Turkey in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Turkish main opposition, unfortunately, did not speak up, and instead opposed the Libyan bill, which was instrumental in one of the most important gains in the “Blue Homeland” struggle. While Mitsotakis was smiling at the cameras with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the Vahdettin Mansion, he certainly had not forgotten the policy of his state a year ago. With the U.S.' withdrawal of support for the EastMed pipeline project, now pointing to Turkey as a partner, Turkey's status as a rising star in international politics after Russia's invasion of Ukraine opened the door to these developments.
Erdoğan resisted. By protecting Turkey's interests and rights in the Mediterranean, he made regional states accept them. The madness of excluding the country that has the longest coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean from interstate agreements that will pass through the Eastern Mediterranean has thus come to an end.
