Why Is the Turkey-Libya Maritime Deal So Disputed?

Recep Tayyip Erdogan answered his critics on 26 October, six days after Libya’s eastern parliament ratified a 2019 maritime memorandum with Turkey. To Vima reported that he called the objections of Greece, the European Union and Egypt “legally unfounded” and stressed that the vote was unanimous. Egypt, Greece, the EU and Israel had already said the opposite, and used the word void, before he spoke.

Erdogan and Fayez al-Sarraj, then head of the Tripoli government, signed the memorandum in Istanbul on 27 November 2019. Al Jazeera’s explainer on the deal says it draws a sea border across the eastern Mediterranean and lets Ankara claim large, potentially gas-rich areas. The Tobruk-based House of Representatives rejected it in 2020. On 20 October it voted to approve it.

Turkey and both rival Libyan authorities now back the memorandum. Egypt, Greece, the EU and Israel have each rejected it in writing. The State Department went from encouraging talks on 21 October to calling the ratification “unhelpful and provocative” by 25 October.

On 21 October, Anadolu reported, he told his AK Party parliamentary group in Ankara: “Yesterday, we received extremely pleasing news from Libya.” Five days later, in the remarks To Vima carried, he said: “Our sole compass in both domestic and foreign policy is Turkey’s interests.” He added: “Even if we have to pay a price, we will never hesitate”. Al Jazeera quotes Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan calling the memorandum “an entirely legitimate deal, both from a legal and a statutory perspective.”

Egypt replied on Wednesday 21 October. Its Foreign Ministry said the ratification was “absolutely null and void” and reserved the right to protect its sovereign rights. Al Jazeera quotes the same ministry saying the deal “constitutes a clear infringement upon Egypt’s sovereign rights within its exclusive economic zone and continental shelf.” Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty had telephoned his Greek counterpart, George Gerapetritis, on Tuesday 20 October, the day of the vote.

Athens called the memorandum “illegal, null and void” and said it would “take all appropriate measures to safeguard its sovereign rights.” Al Jazeera reports that Greece says the text ignores islands including Crete, Rhodes and Karpathos. Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said the memorandum infringes on “the sovereign rights of third states.” Kaja Kallas followed on Wednesday, according to Al Jazeera, with a call on all countries to respect member states’ rights.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry joined on 21 October. According to the Jerusalem Post, it said the agreement “infringes upon the sovereign rights of our close allies in the region” and that “once again, we see Turkey working to destabilize the eastern Mediterranean region.”

A State Department spokesperson, answering a question from Kathimerini, said the ratification “has heightened tensions in the region, is unhelpful and provocative” and that “our position on this matter has not changed.” The National Herald reported on 25 October that an earlier statement, on 21 October, had only encouraged negotiations and pointed to the commercial benefits of settling maritime disputes. The spokesperson added: “Greece and Turkey are both NATO allies.”

Erdogan’s “sole compass” sentence answers three capitals with one clause. Egypt’s text, by contrast, stops at the verb “reserves”: its ministry said it would protect its rights and gave no step. To Vima’s headline says Cairo is preparing a legal challenge, but the article describes none.

Al Jazeera reports that Tripoli’s Government of National Unity welcomed the Tobruk decision, so both rival centres of power stand behind a text that Libya’s east had refused since 2020. Anas El Gomati, director of the Libyan think tank Sadeq Institute, told Al Jazeera that “a ratified treaty is hard to reverse.” He also said “unification was never about the sea.”

Sotirios Zartaloudis of the University of Birmingham told Al Jazeera that “so far expectations were not met” on EU condemnation. The National Herald says the Hellenic American Leadership Council wrote to Marco Rubio asking for a clearer public US position, and the State Department’s stronger wording came four days after its first.

Egypt’s parliament has just authorised military support for Saudi Arabia against the Houthis, as covered in our report on the vote. Wolfgang Pusztai, a security analyst and former Austrian defence attache in Greece, told Al Jazeera that a Turkish military presence in eastern Libya was “probably more of a concern for Egypt.” He said: “I doubt Cairo would accept this.” None of the 21 October statements mentions a Turkish deployment.

A formal Egyptian filing would be the first concrete step beyond statements; Greece, according to To Vima, has already written to UN Secretary-General António Guterres rejecting the deal. A Turkish survey vessel or drilling licence inside the memorandum’s area would be the second marker. The third is the State Department, which has now used the word “provocative” and repeated that Greece and Turkey are allies.