Among international responses to Turkey’s drilling for oil and gas in disputed waters off Cyprus, the most interesting is that of Russia.
Turkey’s relations lately have sweetened with Russia while souring with the US.
Washington, DC, dislikes the authoritarianism of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who resents US refusal to extradite a Turkish cleric he blames for a coup attempt in 2016.
Disagreement over treatment of Kurds in Syria aggravated the antagonism and nudged Turkey toward Russia.
While Moscow and Ankara have their own divergences, problems are not stern enough to have stopped Turkey from welcoming landfall of a Russian gas pipeline across the Baltic after Europe stymied the South Stream project.
More recently, Ankara agreed to buy a Russian air-defense system, a provocative step for a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that evoked a threat from Washington to exclude Turkey from F-35 fighter aircraft development.
In the Eastern Mediterranean, with its proliferation of gas discoveries off Israel, Cyprus, and Egypt, Turkey raised tension last month by deploying a second drillship to drill off Cyprus.
The first drillship, Fatih, has been drilling the Finike-1 well since May on a license granted by Ankara off western Cyprus. Movement of the vessel to waters claimed by the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus drew protests from the European Union and US State Department.
Now the second drillship, Yavuz, is preparing to drill the Karpuz-1 well off eastern Cyprus on a license granted by the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which only Turkey recognizes.
Predictably, the EU, Cypriot government, and US issued statements condemning the new activity. The EU was reported to be considering sanctions.
The Russian Foreign Ministry similarly expressed “great concern” about the new activity while rebuffing Turkish territorial claims.
“We believe the breach of the sovereignty of Cyprus cannot facilitate the creation of the conditions for a lasting, viable, and just resolution of the Cypriot issue,” it said.
The message to Ankara is stark: Russian friendship has limits.
(From the subscription area of www.ogj.com, posted July 12, 2019. To comment, join the Commentary channel at www.ogj.com/oilandgascommunity.)