Bahçeli on the Turkish-Libyan memorandum: a message to Athens, Nicosia and Brussels over “fait accompli” in the Mediterranean

Devlet Bahçeli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and a government partner of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, used his address to the party’s parliamentary group on Tuesday, November 3, to attack Greece, Cyprus, Israel and the European Union over the Turkish-Libyan memorandum. He described the approval of the memorandum by the Libyan House of Representatives as a “satisfactory development” and warned that Ankara “will not allow fait accompli” in the Mediterranean basin.

In the same speech, whose text was published by Turkish outlets such as Takvim, Bahçeli claimed that Turkey is “obliged to take the measures dictated by its sovereign rights”, in an international system where, in his words, injustice is deepening.

“Wailing” in Athens, Nicosia and Israel

Bahçeli accused those bothered by the friendly relations between Turkey and Libya of “breaking into wailing”. “It immediately became clear that Greece, the Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus and Israel, which incites them against Turkey, as well as the European Union, which in the name of unity and solidarity does not hesitate to criticise Turkey with Greek Cypriot and Greek positions, were bothered by this development,” he said. “Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus” is the term with which Ankara refuses to recognise the Republic of Cyprus, a full member of the EU.

He also took aim at the joint statement by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa, which, he claimed, “revealed the EU’s approach, full of contradictions, and its weakness”. Recalling the saying that Europe is like a bicycle that falls if it stops, he said it “seems to have no strength left even to turn the pedals”. He advised the EU, instead of questioning Turkish moves that he described as consistent with international law, to look at its weakened economy and social situation.

Athens has called the memorandum null and void, a position Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis repeated in his Reuters interview. The EU, Cyprus, Egypt, Bahrain and the UAE backed it in a joint statement at the UN.

“No fait accompli” and the occupied part of Cyprus

Elsewhere in the speech Bahçeli said Ankara has repeatedly declared it will not allow fait accompli in the Mediterranean basin, “especially in the sovereignty area of our country and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”, the name Ankara gives to the self-declared regime in the occupied part of Cyprus, which only Turkey recognises. The UN Security Council has declared it legally invalid in resolutions 541 and 550. He added that Turkey seeks to strengthen friendly relations with its neighbours and to create cooperation mechanisms “by mutual consent”.

His remarks come as Athens prepares a new NAVTEX for the surveys on the Great Sea Interconnector cable route, while Turkey insists it must have a say in licensing.

Mecca pact, Houthis and Israel

Bahçeli also referred to the meeting of the foreign ministers of Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Germany, the UK, France and Italy in Istanbul on October 23, which he called a tangible expression of Turkish multilateral diplomacy. He mentioned too the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement, signed by Turkey, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia on August 7 and still awaiting ratification by the Turkish National Assembly, and called for “all means” within its provisions to be mobilised to end Houthi aggression and avoid civilian losses.

On Israel, where the elections gave no party a majority, he proposed a government including the Arab parties and a “Jerusalem Alliance”, backed by US President Donald Trump and international Jewish organisations.

It is the second time in two weeks that Bahçeli has targeted Greece and Cyprus, after he claimed on October 20 that Cyprus “is Turkish”.