Alliance between Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood against the Egyptian-Greek maritime agreement

Since 30 June 2013, when mass demonstrations against the Egyptian government of Mohammed Morsi took place, ending with the coup d'état of Abdul Fatah al-Sisi, Turkey has become the place of refuge for the Muslim Brotherhood. Many of the meetings that the Brotherhood has held have had the government of Recep Tayipp Erdogan as their headquarters and ally.

This alliance has now been used by Ankara, which has requested the help of the Muslim Brotherhood both in Qatar and in the Turkish capital, for its campaign against the Egyptian and Greek demarcation of their respective maritime borders.

Last week, Athens and Cairo agreed on the delimitation of the maritime zone between the two countries. Tensions in the gas-rich Eastern Mediterranean have increased following this pact.​​​​​​​

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said the agreement with Greece would allow the countries to move forward with plans to explore for hydrocarbons. His Greek counterpart Nikos Dendias said the agreement with Egypt "reconfirms and enshrines the effect and right of our islands to a continental shelf and an EEZ (exclusive economic zone). "It respects the provisions of international law and the law of the sea. It also complies with the rules of good neighbourly relations and contributes to stability and security in our region," Dendias said.

For both Greece and Egypt, this union means progress in the use of the resources available in this EEZ. Cairo will be able to explore for oil and gas in the western economic zones located on the maritime borders with Greece, and both countries will also have the right to search and explore in the eastern Mediterranean. 

The agreement follows a controversial 2019 memorandum of understanding between Turkey and Libya to establish EEZs in the eastern Mediterranean, which is home to numerous high-profile gas accumulations, including the Egyptian-owned Zohr supergiant gas field and a number of important offshore gas finds in Cyprus.

Ankara criticized the maritime agreement between Greece and Egypt, and its Foreign Ministry denied the existence of a maritime border between Greece and Egypt. "With regard to Turkey, the so-called delimitation agreement signed is null and void. The area allegedly delimited is within the Turkish continental shelf as declared to the United Nations," denounced Mevlüt Çavusoglu, the foreign ministry's official.

These statements were followed by a series of attacks by the Muslim Brotherhood on social networks, criticizing the agreement and accusing Egypt of conspiring against Turkey.

According to Egypt's former deputy foreign minister, Mohammed Hegazy, in statements to the news portal Arab News, Turkey's reason for anger is that after the agreement between Athens and Cairo, as well as Greece's agreement with Italy, Turkey no longer has a maritime entry point to Libya, according to international law.

The Ankara agreement with the Tripoli-based National Accord Government drew a diagonal line from the Libyan continental shelf and Turkish waters. This delimitation ignored and displaced the recognized claims of Cyprus and Greece, but the Erdogan administration claimed that it was legal because, unlike the European Union and the United Nations, it did not recognize islands (such as the Greek and Cyprus) entitled to territorial waters beyond their immediate coastline.

On Monday, the Turkish navy published the dispatch of the Turkish ship "Aruj Ries" to the eastern Mediterranean to carry out seismic surveys in the area over the next two weeks. Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey had resumed energy exploration work in the region because Greece had not fulfilled its promises on the subject.

These seismic surveys, which are opposed by both Greece and Egypt because they involve flying over the Aegean Sea and Cyprus, are often part of the preliminary work to look for hydrocarbons. On the same day, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, the Greek Prime Minister, warned that Greece would not submit to the Turkish threat in "our areas of the Mediterranean".

This crossing of statements has only increased the tension between two NATO members and the Greek army has already risen to its maximum level of preparation due to the Turkish exercises.

Both members of the Atlantic alliance have long disagreed over claims to hydrocarbon resources, and tensions erupted last month, prompting German Chancellor Angela Merkel to hold talks with the leaders of both countries to ease tensions.