Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
A letter signed by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirms for the first time that secret negotiations have been ongoing to delineate maritime boundaries between Turkey and Syria after the Assad regime was overthrown by Turkish-backed jihadist groups last year.
The letter, obtained by Nordic Monitor, reveals that multiple Turkish institutions have been instructed to draft an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) agreement with Syria. The aim is to safeguard the interests of both Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), a breakaway state on the Mediterranean island recognized only by Ankara .
“With the overthrow of the Baath regime and the transfer of power to a transitional government, efforts are being carried out in coordination with our relevant institutions to determine the maritime boundary with Syria and to delimit maritime jurisdiction areas beyond territorial waters, in a way that protects our country’s rights and interests,” Fidan wrote in the letter, dated June 16 and addressed to the Speaker’s Office in the Turkish Parliament.
Fidan also emphasized that Turkey is committed to defending the rights and interests of the KKTC in any future maritime delimitation agreement with Damascus.
The letter is the first official confirmation that preparations for such a maritime agreement are already underway — despite earlier public remarks by Turkey’s transportation minister indicating Ankara was only considering such a deal as a future possibility.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan’s letter confirms that work on demarcating maritime boundaries with Syria is underway:
Fidan also rejected claims that Turkey had pledged not to pursue a maritime agreement with Syria during his January 12, 2025 meeting in Riyadh with Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice president of the European Commission.
“It would be beneficial to take into account the official statements and declarations made by our ministry on this matter,” Fidan stated in the letter, adding, “The EU has no right to comment on a potential agreement between two sovereign states regarding their maritime jurisdiction areas.”
A Turkish-Syrian maritime deal could significantly alter the geopolitical dynamics of the eastern Mediterranean, which has emerged in recent years as a flashpoint for regional disputes. The discovery of rich hydrocarbon reserves beneath the seabed has led to overlapping claims from several coastal states, with Turkey at the center of disputes involving Greece, Cyprus and Egypt.
Given the region’s tangled history and overlapping EEZ claims, any agreement between Turkey and Syria could further escalate tensions between Ankara and EU member states Greece and Cyprus, drawing Brussels into yet another standoff with its long-troubled candidate country.
Turkey appears to be seizing a strategic opportunity in a post-Assad Syria now led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, with whom Turkish officials have engaged in long-standing, though clandestine, cooperation. Since the Syrian civil war began in 2011, Turkey has supported and armed various jihadist groups in an effort to topple Assad.
Ankara had previously attempted to reach a maritime delimitation deal with the Assad government, but those efforts were derailed by the outbreak of the Syrian conflict in 2011.
This time, a successful agreement would not only formalize Turkey’s maritime boundary with Syria but also bolster Ankara’s legal claims in the region, offer de facto recognition to the KKTC and potentially open new areas for energy exploration.
The deal could also pave the way for Turkey and Syria to jointly explore and exploit transboundary hydrocarbon resources. Given that Damascus currently lacks the capacity to carry out offshore drilling, Ankara would likely lead the technical and operational efforts under such a pact.
However, the proposed agreement is expected to further complicate Turkey’s relationships with third-party countries such as Cyprus, Israel and Lebanon — each with their own stakes in the Mediterranean’s contested waters and wary of any moves that might shift the balance of maritime claims.
Turkey has long objected to maritime delimitation agreements signed by Cyprus with Egypt in 2003, Lebanon in 2007 and Israel in 2010, arguing that these pacts infringe on the rights of the KKTC. Ankara and the KKTC have also criticized Nicosia’s decision to grant exploration licenses for offshore hydrocarbon blocks.
Turkey appears to be following a similar blueprint to the one it used with Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA), which culminated in a controversial 2019 maritime deal. That agreement sharply escalated tensions with Greece and the European Union.
In response to the Turkey-Libya maritime memorandum, the European Council declared on December 12, 2019, that the accord infringes on the sovereign rights of third states, does not comply with the United Nations Law of the Sea and cannot produce any legal consequences for third states.
