Turkey has criticized most of the members of the Eastern Mediterranean Forum signing an agreement to turn it into a regional governmental organization, in a step it considered a new “unilateral”.
And Ankara indicated, according to what was reported by the Anadolu Agency / today, that the aforementioned agreement signed by 6 of the 7 member countries of the forum, and which the representatives of Palestine were absent from, seeks “individual moves away from Ankara, which has always demanded the necessity to achieve a fair sharing of resources.” In the eastern Mediterranean region. “
Ankara pointed out that the signing of the agreement took place in a closed-circuit television meeting with representatives of the six countries, in addition to representatives of the European Union as observers, and a number of ambassadors.
The forum was established in January 2019, and the representatives of the participating countries held its second meeting in January 2020, and aims to “secure the energy needs of the members for the benefit of the welfare of their people” as stated in the founding contract.
Ankara had previously denounced the moves towards turning the forum into an international organization, and promised it a “matter far from reality,” according to statements by Mr. Hami Aksoy, a spokesman for the Turkish Foreign Ministry, last January.
At the time, Aksoy said that the establishment of this forum came with political motives to get Turkey out of the energy equation in the eastern Mediterranean, adding that if the real goal of the forum was cooperation, then Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus would be invited to it, stressing that the establishment of such groups is against His country, will not contribute to achieving peace and cooperation in the region.
These developments come while Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to meet, via video conference, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Council President Charles Michel.
