Borrell: Turkey’s role in Syria and Libya harms the EU’s security interests

The European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has stressed that the role being played by the Turkish regime in Syria and Libya harms the European security interests, urging Ankara to reconsider this role.

“The unilateral Turkish role in both Syria and Libya doesn’t go in harmony neither with the security interests of the European Union as a whole nor with the understandings reached among its members,” Borrell said in a statement on Friday, noting the Turkish regime’s provocative moves in east and north  Africa and in the west of the Balkans.

Borrell expressed his concern over the agreement reached between the Turkish regime and the government of the National Accord in Libya, saying that after this agreement, the Turkish regime started drilling activities in eastern Mediterranean which constituted “a direct challenge” to Greece and Cyprus and created a negative environment that impeded activating a positive agenda.

 He noted the deterioration of relations between Brussels and Ankara in recent years, indicating that no progress has been achieved in negotiations on Turkey’s EU membership and on Cyprus issue.

Hamda Mustafa