While the borders, governments and regimes of the surrounding countries have changed, the Mediterranean has gradually heated up. What is attracting everybody is the huge natural gas and oil reserves under the water.
This is because oil fields in northern seas are no longer as fruitful as they used to be. Therefore, oil cartels have turned their interest toward deeper waters and areas of no interest. According to a report published by the American Geosciences Institute, there are two oil reserves of 1.7 billion barrels in the Eastern Mediterranean basin, as well as an estimated natural gas reserve of 3.45 trillion cubic meters.
While there are heaps of agreements on how to share the spoils, there are also attempts to somehow exclude Turkey, which has a coast along the Mediterranean Sea, from the process. The U.S. and the EU are laying claim to the Mediterranean reserves. The rights of Egypt, Israel and Greek Cyprus in the Mediterranean are being discussed. There are also attempts to ignore Turkey's sovereign rights and commercial interests.
Moreover, everyone is made well aware of what they will face if they oppose to this "sharing." Even Greece, which sold all of its ports in the grip of economic crisis, has adopted the same attitude, with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras' government threatening their neighbor, Turkey, with an economic embargo with the support of U.S. and European powers behind them.
U.S. mobility in the Mediterranean and the exercises that the U.S. has been carrying out with some NATO members in the region, with the exception of Turkey, are not being perceived irrespective of the issue. Recently, for instance, news wires reported that the U.S. dispatched a navy vessel consisting of 2,000 soldiers, nearly 700 vehicles, containers and equipment to the port of Alexandroupolis, Greece, some 60 kilometers from the Turkish border.
The U.S. issued a statement, saying that this "concentration" is aimed for the multi-national Saber Guardian-2019 exercise to be carried out with Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary. This statement, however, does not answer the question why the weapons have been dispatched to the border of Turkey, which is excluded from the exercise, instead of to the points closer to the countries mentioned.
Upon all these developments, F-35 jets, in which Turkey is a project partner, are hastily being sent to Greek Cyprus.
No one should say that this is a conspiracy theory. It is normal to think of every possibility in an environment where the U.S. which has been a strategic partner of the Turkey for more than half a century, has been providing trucks of arms to the PKK affiliated-People's Protection Units (YPG) terrorist organization, an enemy of Turkey. Moreover, it is no secret that Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) terrorists, who attempted to stage a coup on July 15, 2016, are protected by the U.S.
Is it strange that Turkey is planning for means to strengthen its defense system and planning to buy S-400s from Russia in such an environment?
What would the members of U.S. Congress, which gives advice to Turkey through NATO and alliance relations, do if their countries faced a similar treatment?
A Turkish proverb says "You get what you pay for." What the U.S. will do to avoid pushing its oldest and the most reliable strategic partner in the region toward Russia, and the attitude it will take in return, is evident.
