The tension in the Eastern Mediterranean

Not only is Turkey continuing its activities in the wider region around Cyprus, but it has declared that it is scaling them up by sending another research vessel to the area. Such a development is not particularly surprising, as Turkey has for many years expressed in several ways the importance of the Eastern Mediterranean in general, and of Cyprus in particular, to its interests.
For Ankara, the stakes are very high and the cost so far has been very acceptable. In particular, developments in recent years pose the following risks for Turkey: It may find itself outside geopolitical partnerships and other processes in the Eastern Mediterranean, observing - without any possibility of intervening in - the geopolitical and economic upgrade of Cyprus, and it may be sidelined in any energy planning (although the size of the oil and gas deposits and the region's transformation into an...