Why Kyriakos Mitsotakis remained silent about the Turkish-Libyan memorandum

Following the recent meeting of the Prime Minister Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis a key question arose with the Turkish leadership: why was the topic not raised during the negotiations? Turkish-Libyan memorandumwhich Athens considers illegal.

The answer turned out to be obvious: on the same day Türkiye announced the start geological exploration work based on this memorandum.

Libyawhich is closely politically dependent on Ankara, officially transferred the rights to conduct research through the Turkish Energy Minister Alparslana Bayraktara for two new plots.

One of them is located on land and does not affect the interests of Greece. The second site is located in the sea, approximately 140 kilometers northwest of Benghazi. It does not formally cross the Greek shelf, but is included in the area covered Turkish-Libyan memorandum.

In fact this is what happens indirect legalization controversial agreement. The site is being transferred for exploitation not only to a Turkish company TPAObut also Spanish Repsol and Hungarian MOL.

Attracting European companies allows Ankara to get additional international legitimation of your actions.

If they wish, Türkiye and Libya could conclude a new agreement that does not affect Greek continental shelf and not taking away significant areas of it. However, this was not done.

There were no official statements or diplomatic protests from Athens regarding the ongoing research.

At the same time, in June 2025, the Libyan side accused Greece of violating sovereign rights due to the licensing of areas to the south Crete for an American company Chevron.

There is another reason why the issue of the memorandum had to be raised.

Mitsotakis himself previously stated that the only dispute with Turkey remains the delimitation maritime zones And continental shelf.

However, it is the Turkish-Libyan memorandum that actually removes a significant part of the potential Greek AOD and shelf.

The lack of response from Athens may be perceived as tacit consent with what is happening.

In June 2025, the Government of National Unity of Libya and Turkey signed an agreement to conduct 2D seismic surveys in four offshore areas, three of which are adjacent to the Greek shelf south and southwest of Crete.

Although formal boundaries are not violated, all research is carried out within the framework contested memorandum.

Until this document is cancelled, Greek continental shelf remains under constant threat.

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