Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and UAE conduct joint military exercises amid rising Turkish threat
BY CHRISTINE DOUGLASS-WILLIAMS
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
In a significant move, the United Arab Emirates “is participating for the first time, along with new arrival France, in the joint Greek-Egyptian-Cypriot Medusa-10 training exercises being held Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 off the coast of Alexandria.”
The presence of this alliance in the Mediterranean sends a strong message to Turkey, although “their true value lies in the political cooperation taking place in the region as the countries seek to confront Ankara while being wary of provoking Turkey too much.”
However benign the expressed intentions are, the mere specter of Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, France and the United Arab Emirates coordinating efforts is a provocation to Erdogan, who has been himself a provocation to these countries.
- Turkey has slammed the UAE for “hypocritical behavior” over normalizing relations with Israel.
- In early August, Egypt and Greece signed an agreement “designating an exclusive economic zone in the eastern Mediterranean.” Soon after, Erdogan declared that deal null and void. But then in October, Egypt ratified a maritime deal with Greece, setting its Mediterranean Sea boundary with Greece.
- Erdogan has also verbally attacked France, calling the French leader Macron “mentally ill” over Macron’s comments about Islam and efforts to protect France’s freedom of expression following the beheading of French teacher Samuel Paty for insulting Muhammad.
- In October, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi warned Greece and Cyprus “that a wave of Turkish-backed jihadists will be a problem for Greece in the future.”
- Turkey’s ongoing occupation of northern Cyprus and its violations of economic zones of Cyprus, not to mention its repeated violations of Greek airspace, have demonstrated the supremacist imperative Erdogan is pursuing
A collaborative effort by the EU, UN and NATO that saw a Turkish vessel commandeered by German inspectors, in efforts to control the Turkish army’s flow into Libya, has already caused outrage in Turkey. This, in addition to the Mediterranean military exercises, demonstrates a new resolve to push back against Turkish aggressiveness.
“Exercise in Eastern Mediterranean,” by Sean Matthews, Al-Monitor, December 2, 2020:
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is participating for the first time, along with new arrival France, in the joint Greek-Egyptian-Cypriot Medusa-10 training exercises being held Nov. 30 to Dec. 6 off the coast of Alexandria.
The Emirati presence in the military exercises comes less than two weeks after signing a strategic partnership agreement with Greece Nov. 18, which was described to Al-Monitor as “a major achievement from Athens’ point of view” by Kostas Ifantis, professor of international relations at Panteion University in Athens.
“It is the first time in the post-WWII era that Athens concludes a bilateral agreement of this magnitude. What brought the two together in such an urgent way is Turkey and the overreaching revisionism of Ankara. It is an arrangement aiming at containing Turkey and making the deterrent strategies of both Greece and the UAE more credible,” Ifantis added.
The UAE, which has been locked in a rivalry with Turkey since 2013 over what it views as Ankara’s destabilizing support for the Muslim Brotherhood, has sided with Greece in recent years as the Hellenic country confronts Turkey over a series of maritime disputes in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“We share with Greece the same view toward Turkey regarding its policies in the Mediterranean,” Ebtesam al-Ketbi, president of the Emirates Policy Center in Abu Dhabi, told Al-Monitor. “We are trying to cooperate to face the political Islam which Turkey is using as a cover for its expansion and regional policies.”
Until now, one of the more visible examples of that support was in August when Greek and Turkish warships collided in the Eastern Mediterranean and the Gulf nation dispatched F-16 fighter jets to the island of Crete.
The recent inclusion of UAE forces in the Medusa-10 training exercises, alongside its partners who share an interest in checking Turkey’s ambitions, appears to be an attempt to build on the momentum of the Greek-Emirati agreement and send a message of unity before the December European Union (EU) summit when Turkish sanctions are to be discussed.
The Greek-Emirati deal solidifies a bilateral framework for more defense cooperation between the two countries situated on near opposite geographical boundaries of the Middle East.
“The new agreement institutionalizes the stationing of military forces of one country to the territory of the other, which is very important for defense-oriented purposes,” Antonia Dimou, director of the Middle East and Persian Gulf Unit at the Athens-based Institute for Security and Defense Analyses, told Al-Monitor.
“Let’s not forget that Turkey has a presence at the doorstep of the UAE via its base in Qatar; now, through the agreement with Greece, the UAE expands a presence at the doorstep of Turkey,” Dimou said….