Egyptian criticism of Turkey’s plan for a two-state resolution peace deal on ethnically divided Cyprus has come as the newest signal of ongoing stress between Cairo and Ankara regardless of earlier diplomatic efforts to rebuild their relations.
Egyptian Overseas Minister Sameh Shoukry mentioned that his nation rejects the two-state resolution Turkey is searching for to impose as a situation for the resumption of peace talks below the auspices of the United Nations.
In a press convention following his assembly together with his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides on Dec. 14, Shoukry added that any talks ought to fall inside UN procedures to reunify the japanese Mediterranean island as a federation.
Shoukry mentioned that regional challenges must be resolved based mostly on worldwide regulation moderately than “aggressive actions or expansionist tendencies.” The Nicosia authorities accuses Turkey of searching for a peace deal that may broaden its management over the japanese Mediterranean, which is wealthy in oil and fuel reserves. Christodoulides mentioned that he expressed to Shoukry his government’s deep concern over “Turkey’s destabilizing international coverage within the area.” The 2 officers pressured the significance of sustaining stability within the japanese Mediterranean area.
Because the Turkish invasion in 1974, Cyprus has been divided right into a northern half run by Turkish Cypriots and a southern half run by Greek Cypriots.
Turkey is the one nation that acknowledges Northern Cyprus as a sovereign nation and it maintains greater than 35,000 troops there. It has no diplomatic relations with the internationally acknowledged authorities of Cyprus in Nicosia, which joined the European Union in 2004.
All UN-backed efforts to reunify the island have failed. During a summit below the UN umbrella in April, the Cypriot leaders didn’t agree on resuming peace talks, which have been stalled since 2017.
Each the European Union and the US reject the two-state solution Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is urgent for.
Greek Cypriots concern {that a} two-state deal will cement Turkish management over your entire island in addition to oil and fuel deposits mendacity off the coast of Cyprus.
Turkey claims rights in Cyprus’ continental shelf and holds that drilling by Greek Cypriots off its shores would violate its rights — and people of Turkish Cypriots — to the area’s vitality reserves. The Cypriot government holds that the Turkish claims contradict worldwide regulation and violate the Island’s sovereign rights.
Egypt, a regional rival of Turkey, has loved close ties with Cyprus and Greece since Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took energy in 2014. The three nations maintain a number of tripartite summits on vitality, fuel exploration, counterterrorism and border demarcation and sometimes criticize Ankara’s policies within the japanese Mediterranean.
Sisi mentioned Egypt helps the unification of Cyprus and rejects any violation of its territorial waters or airspace at a tripartite summit held in October between Sisi, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Cypriote President Nicos Anastasiades.
Egypt signed with Cyprus a maritime boundary demarcation agreement in December 2013 and the same agreement with Greece in August 2020.
Egypt and Cyprus signed an settlement to demarcate the maritime borders in December 2013, In August 2020, Egypt and Greece signed an settlement to demarcate their maritime borders that successfully nullified an agreement that Turkey had signed with the Libyan Authorities of Nationwide Accord in Tripoli in November 2019. Egypt and Greece described the deal as unlawful and a violation of international law, and Greece considers it an infringement on its continental shelf.
Erol Kaymak, a professor of political science and worldwide relations on the Jap Mediterranean College in Northern Cyprus, instructed Al-Monitor that Egypt’s reaffirmation of the UN parameters for a settlement in Cyprus is no surprise. “It is the default place to tackle Cyprus,” he added.
Aykan Erdemir, senior director of the Turkey program on the Basis for Protection of Democracies and a former member of the Turkish Parliament, instructed Al-Monitor, “Cairo’s newest name clashes with the two-state mannequin advocated by Erdogan and his Turkish Cypriot proxies.”
Erdemir mentioned, “Ankara has no expectations that Egypt and different states like Israel, Saudi Arabia or the United Arab Emirates will undertake the Erdogan authorities’s place on Cyprus earlier than mending strained ties.”
Early this 12 months, Turkey took a more flexible approach to transform its regional alliances with Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE in addition to Israel in a bid to construct bridges with the allies of the US after years of political rivalry and military interventions that has demonstrated Turkey’s affect within the area and spoiled its alliances in Arab world.
“The destiny of the divided island is prone to set off additional diplomatic spats between the Erdogan authorities and different states together with Egypt, however so long as this doesn’t result in irredentist steps that threaten littoral states’ maritime rights they need to not hinder Ankara’s varied rapprochement initiatives,” Erdemir mentioned.
Nonetheless, Erdemir mentioned, “Erdogan’s ongoing patronage of the Muslim Brotherhood stays the primary impediment stopping a full-scale Egyptian-Turkish rapprochement.”
Relations deteriorated between Egypt and Turkey after the Egyptian military toppled former Muslim Brotherhood President Mohammed Morsi following mass protests towards his rule in 2012-2013. In November 2013, each Egypt and Turkey withdrew their ambassadors.
Since then, the Cairo-Ankara dispute has become a broader regional struggle over Islamism. The Egyptian authorities categorized the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist group, whereas Turkey has served as a protected haven for lots of of the Brotherhood members and leaders who fled Cairo with the help of Erdogan, the chief of the Islamist Justice and Growth Occasion.
In early March, Egypt and Turkey introduced the resumption of diplomatic contacts with the goal of repairing relations. Accordingly, Ankara requested Turkey-based Egyptian TV channels to cease broadcasting political criticism towards the Sisi authorities. These reveals moved to a livestream format on social media platforms, which Turkey has requested to cease as properly.
Officers of the 2 nations have up to now held rounds of bilateral “exploratory talks” in Could and September aimed to settle variations and finally normalize ties. However talks have been frozen since then. Cairo considers Ankara not serious about mending ties but.
The 2 nations proceed to have unresolved points, most notably Turkey’s relations with the Brotherhood and the destiny of the Turkey-based members of the group. Cairo wants them to be extradited as they face terrorism fees. Additionally, Egypt has repeatedly demanded the withdrawal of foreign forces and Syrian mercenaries from Libya.
In response, Egypt sought to isolate Turkey regionally within the battle of alliances within the japanese Mediterranean as a strain card. Egypt, Cyprus and Greece along with Israel, Italy, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority fashioned the Cairo-based East Mediterranean Fuel Discussion board in January 2019 as a governmental group with business and political goals against Turkey as properly.
In consequence, Turkey sought to drag Egypt apart to demarcate their maritime borders within the japanese Mediterranean. But, Cairo believes that any potential deal ought to essentially contain Greece and Cyprus and respect their continental cabinets.
“The reconfigured Turkish international coverage goals to isolate the Greek Cypriot-led Republic of Cyprus/Greece, so the aim has been to shut fronts and in any other case restore relations with estranged former allies, together with Israel and Egypt. For Egypt, with no broader understanding on the Muslim Brotherhood, I doubt that the normalization course of can yield the outcomes hoped for,” Kaymak mentioned.
Nonetheless, he added, “Coverage-makers in Cairo acknowledge that Erdogan has a weak hand and there’s no must accommodate Turkey at this stage.”
