A letter signed by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has, for the first time, confirmed that secret negotiations are underway to define maritime boundaries between Turkey and Syria, in anticipation of the post-Assad era. Secret negotiations between Turkey and Syria over maritime zones.
The letter, obtained by Nordic Monitor, reveals that several Turkish government bodies have been instructed to draft an agreement on an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) with Syria. The stated aim is to protect the interests of both Turkey and the self-declared “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”.
“With the fall of the Ba’ath regime and the transition to a provisional government, coordinated efforts are being made with our relevant institutions to determine the maritime boundary with Syria and to delineate maritime zones beyond territorial waters in a manner that safeguards the rights and interests of our country,” Fidan writes in the letter, dated 16 June and addressed to the Office of the Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly.
Fidan also underlined that Turkey is committed to defending the claims of the Turkish Cypriot entity in any future maritime demarcation agreement with Damascus.
This letter marks the first official acknowledgment that preparations for such an agreement are actively underway, despite earlier public comments by Turkey’s Minister of Transport, which implied Ankara was merely considering the possibility for the future.
Fidan went on to deny allegations that Turkey had agreed not to pursue a maritime accord with Syria during his meeting on 12 January 2025 in Riyadh with Kaya Kalin, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Vice-President of the European Commission.
“It would be useful to refer to the official statements issued by our Ministry on the matter,” Fidan stated in the letter, adding: “The European Union has no authority to interfere in a possible agreement between two sovereign states regarding their maritime jurisdictions.”
A Turkish-Syrian maritime agreement could dramatically shift the geopolitical landscape in the Eastern Mediterranean, a region that in recent years has become a flashpoint for competing energy and territorial claims. The discovery of substantial hydrocarbon reserves has intensified disputes, with Turkey frequently at odds with Greece, Cyprus, and Egypt, Nordic Monitor reports.
Turkey appears to be seizing a strategic opening in post-Assad Syria, now ruled by President Ahmad al-Shaar, with whom Turkish officials have reportedly maintained a long-standing, covert relationship. Since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Ankara has been accused of supporting and arming various jihadist factions in its efforts to remove Assad.
Turkey had previously attempted to reach a maritime agreement with the Assad regime, but these efforts were cut short by the onset of the civil war in 2011.
The emerging pattern appears to mirror the approach Turkey adopted with Libya’s Government of National Accord (GNA), which culminated in the controversial 2019 maritime delimitation deal between Ankara and Tripoli.
