Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan claims to see alliances in the Eastern Mediterranean attempting to “encircle” Turkey. As he stated in an interview with Turkish state broadcaster TRT, reported by the Athens News Agency, Turkey observes these efforts and is developing diplomatic means to counter them. However, if diplomatic measures cannot be deployed, he noted, then the matter is referred to the military and security agencies.
Specifically, Hakan Fidan declared:
“After assuming my duties (as Foreign Minister), I told my colleagues that there are areas that must be advanced through diplomacy. Namely, the Palestine issue, creating a regional security framework, resolving conflicts, finding new markets, discovering new energy sources, and dozens of other issues. One of the most important of these is the visible and invisible areas from which Turkey is being encircled. The visible encirclement areas are alliance zones that have been created against Turkey.
There are alliance areas that are being attempted to be created in the Mediterranean and the Eastern Mediterranean. We see them and are developing diplomatic measures for them. If you cannot develop diplomatic measures for specific issues, then you refer the matter to your military, to security agencies, and more things happen. That is, you must take in advance the diplomatic measures you can take”.
Fidan on Erdogan-Trump relationship
In another part of his interview, Hakan Fidan argued that there exists a relationship between the presidents of Turkey and the United States, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Donald Trump, which found application in the Palestinian issue and specifically in the ceasefire with Hamas. “Yesterday, as you know, Mr. Trump asked to call our president and called him. Invoking their friendship, he declared confidence that our president has already offered every possible assistance, but asked him to show his interest in this matter again, from his own side”.
The head of Turkish diplomacy said that six to seven hours after this conversation, Hamas responded positively to Trump’s plan with an announcement. “Now, if the two leaders see that their cooperation is really useful both for solving problems between the two countries, and for advancing the interests of both countries, but also for solving regional problems, then this is a really productive relationship. I believe this relationship can lead to much more beneficial results,” emphasized the Turkish Foreign Minister.
