NATO allies Turkey and Greece are facing off in one of their fiercest rows in months over a wealth of energy deposits in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. It is far from the first time tensions have flared between the two neighbors.
Over recent weeks, tensions have been rising in the waters of the Eastern Mediterranean, prompted by what seems like a simple rivalry over energy resources.
Turkey has pursued a gas exploration effort, its research vessel heavily protected by warships of the Turkish Navy. There have been encounters with rival Greek vessels and a third NATO country, France, has become involved, siding with the Greeks.
While gas exploration is the immediate cause, the roots of the problem lie much deeper. What you have is a long-standing conflict between Greece and Turkey being revived in a new context.
Several countries in the region have either found significant gas fields or are actively exploring to find them. This can have very mixed consequences. On the one hand it evokes national rivalries, with ongoing battles over who owns which plot of undersea territory and so on.
They nearly went to war over some uninhabited islets in 1996, and earlier this month, vessels from the two sides collided while Turkey was searching for energy in the eastern Mediterranean.
Greece and its EU allies held war games in the Mediterranean while Turkey conducted drills with the US navy nearby, as the row between the two neighbors over gas and maritime borders ratcheted up another notch.
The convergence of a growing number of warships on an energy-rich but disputed patch of sea between Cyprus and Crete came as NATO and a host of European officials called for cooler heads to prevail. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said he was "personally regularly in contact with Ankara and Athens".
The threat of another conflict could imperil Europe's access to a wealth of new energy resources and draw in nations such as Egypt and war-torn Libya.
After failed shuttle diplomacy aimed at getting the two sides talking, Berlin criticized the naval exercises as "not helpful".
The emerging crisis is quickly rising to the top of the agenda not only regionally but also in Brussels and Washington.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said after telephone talks with US President Donald Trump that Athens was "ready for a significant de-escalation, but on condition that Turkey immediately stops its provocative actions".
But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan insisted that Ankara would not accept preconditions such as suspending its gas exploration before resuming dialogue.
Turkey will "make no concessions on that which is ours," Erdogan said.
Greece was able to secure the support of EU military powerhouse, France, in three days of war games that also include Italy and Cyprus.
The Mediterranean "should not be a playground for the ambitions of some – it's a shared asset," French Defence Minister Florence Parly said.
