Browsing by Subject "Eastern Mediterranean"

Now showing 1 - 9 of 9

Open Access
Cyprus as an emerging player in the Eastern Mediterranean natural gas market: regional cooperation and prospects
(2018-08) Poteau, Sophie
This thesis analyzes the development of the Eastern Mediterranean natural gas market and the impact of regional conflicts on it. It will argue that the region is not stable enough to optimize its natural gas trade. As a matter of fact, the Cypriot conflict, as well as the Israeli-Lebanese conflict are preventing the region from fulfilling its economic potential and ambitions. Therefore, it is important for the region to solve its internal conflicts in order to make the natural gas benefit fairly to all the states involved in the market. The best way for the Eastern Mediterranean states to solve their conflicts is through regional cooperation. The European Union holds the power to influence the Eastern Mediterranean states towards regional cooperation. Indeed, the EU can provide incentives through the initiation of dialogue between countries, common projects and investments. In the Eastern Mediterranean natural gas trade from the producing states to Europe, Egypt could play the pivotal role of natural gas distribution platform at the crossroad between producing and consuming countries. The success of this project could lead to the economic development of Eastern Mediterranean states while providing the EU with a stronger energy security.
Open Access
Energy discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean: conflict or cooperation?
(Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, 2014) Grigoriadis, Ioannis N.
The discovery of oil and naturalgas reserves in the Middle East at the beginning of the twentieth century changed the fate of the region. From a backwater of international politics, the Middle East became central to international strategic rivalries. Almost a century later, energy discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean are unlikely to bring about such tectonic shifts in the strategic fortunes of the Levant. Yet they have generated a fresh interest in their potential impact on existing regional disputes and power constellations. The recent discovery of sizable quantities of natural gas in the seabed between Israel and Cyprus has added to the complexity of international politics in the region. Cyprus and Israel are expected to be the first two states to benefit, as they have already signed large contracts for exploration and drilling projects that would soon turn them into net energy exporters. The possibility of discovering further energy reserves has revived the question of delineating the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of all littoral states in the Eastern Mediterranean and added one potential regional dispute. Turkey’s role has been important, not only because it is one of the region’s littoral states and a large energy importer, but also because it could serve as a transport hub for the delivery of extracted hydrocarbons to the world market. Nevertheless, the Cyprus question, disputes over the delineation of the EEZ and Turkey’s frozen relations with Israel have deterred regional cooperation, despite the positive effect that it could have, not least for European energy security.
Open Access
The EU's effectiveness in the Eastern Mediterranean migration quandary: challenges to building societal resilience
(Routledge, 2021-04-30) Özçürümez, Saime
Under what conditions does the EU contribute to the prevention of governance breakdown and violent conflict in areas of limited statehood and contested orders by fostering societal resilience? This study seeks answers to this question by examining the EU's effectiveness in fostering societal resilience in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey while they have coped with risks emerging from cross-border mobility, mass influx, and prolonged stays of the forcibly displaced due to the Syrian crisis since 2011. The study argues that the EU has been constrained in building societal resilience. The findings suggest that the EU's effectiveness is limited by context-specific social, political, and economic risks in host countries; divergence among policy actors’ often contradictory preferences; and the impact of the EU's policies in outsourcing management of forced displacement. The study concludes that the EU needs to link the implementation of its short-term pragmatic programmes that primarily enable state resilience in crisis contexts with its long-term liberal vision for fostering high level societal resilience with democratic principles and institutions.
Open Access
How does the discovery of hydrocarbon resources in maritime boundary delimitation zones affect interstate conflict?
(2020-08) Altıntaş, Yüksel Yasemin
This thesis analyzes how the discovery of hydrocarbon resources in the maritime territories affect interstate conflict based on a paired comparison of: the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the South China Sea conflicts. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea, littoral states have to define their exclusive economic zones to use their sovereign rights of exploring and exploiting seabed, subsoil, and natural resources out of their territorial waters. In the existence of an exclusive economic zone, maritime boundary delimitations states’ cannot exercise these rights before solving their ongoing disputes. Despite their structural differences in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea and the South China Sea maritime boundary delimitations, the existence of abundance hydrocarbon resources intensified the existing conflict. The thesis concludes that states’ relative gain calculations determine their actions. A direct ratio exists between the severity of the conflict and the abundance of resources. The findings of the thesis indicate that hydrocarbon sources affect the states' perception of relative gains when the coastal states' believe that their expected earnings will increase; it is observed that they become more demanding in their territorial claims.
Open Access
The initial stage for early Bronze Age Cyprus: metallurgy of the Philia culture from a maritime cross-cultural perspective
(2018-05) Özdoğan, Çağdaş
The Philia phase is characterized by whole-scale changes in the economy, technology and society of Cyprus, which mark a profound break with the Chalcolithic period on the island. The products of this new culture were so distinct from the rest, that when Dikaios encountered the ceramic finds from this period for the first time, he named them “Philia”, regarding the location of the finds in the cemetery of Philia Vasiliko at the Ovgos valley. However, the nature of this transition is still poorly understood since the discussion mainly revolves around population movement, cultural interaction, or local development. The literature often focuses specifically on the Philia period, disregarding the developments which led to the emergence of the Philia culture. In order to understand the intense changes of the island culture and emergence of the Bronze Age within in the island system, a broader viewpoint must be taken in a long-term temporal perspective. Therefore, this thesis will examine Cyprus as an island culture from the maritime outlook meanwhile analysing the metallurgical aspect of the Philia Phase, which helps one follow the distinct changes that took place in the island in connection with its neighbors.
Open Access
Key challenges facing the Eastern Mediterranean: the future of regional energy development
(Siyaset Ekonomi ve Toplum Arastirmalari Vakfi, 2021) Karbuz, Sohbet
This article provides a critical overview of the key commercial, technical, legal, and political challenges the Eastern Mediterranean region faces in regard to the development of its natural gas resources and proposes possible ways to overcome them. To that aim, it first gives an up-to-date overview of the upstream developments in the region. It then discusses the challenges facing the monetization of the gas discoveries by looking at both the commercial challenges hampering exploration and field development and the technical challenges involved in exporting the gas to the immediate and distant markets. While examining the legal and political challenges related to maritime delimitation and political alignments, it highlights the role of gas. Finally, it offers some possible ways to overcome those challenges.
Open Access
Phoenicians in Cilicia during the Middle Iron Age: the scope of their presence
(2020-06) Kısmet Okur, Yaprak
This thesis is a study on the use of Phoenician language for the monumental inscriptions which were set up in Plain Cilicia, and dated to the mid 8th c. BC. This thesis aims to assess the hypothesis that Phoenician, as the "trade language" of the eastern Mediterranean and the ancient Near East, became the lingua franca of the period, for the settlements in Plain Cilicia. In order to follow this hypothesis, the political structure and trade network of the period are presented. On the one hand, by proposing what motivated the local rulers in using Phoenician as the second written language, and on the other hand, based on the analysis of the archaeological and historical evidence, this thesis also questions the interest and the presence of the Phoenicians in Cilicia during the Middle Iron Age.
Open Access
The ptolemaic presence outside Egypt: material evidence
(2022-07) Alper, Ece
This thesis provides a survey of Ptolemaic material evidence outside Egypt in the eastern Mediterranean during the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. The regions include Cyrenaica, Cyprus, the Levant, coastal Asia Minor, and the Aegean. The types of material evidence presented are architecture, sculpture, terracotta figurines, ceramics, coinage, and minor arts. The thesis aims to analyze the local and non-local impacts on the material data as well as the motivations of the Ptolemies occupying these overseas territories. Chapter 1 presents the historical background of the Ptolemaic kingdom. The administrative and military history relating to the Ptolemaic rule in the foreign territories is discussed. Chapters 2-6 introduce each foreign territory occupied by the Ptolemies, in the following order: Cyrenaica, Cyprus, the Levant, coastal Asia Minor, and the Aegean. Each material category, namely architecture, sculpture, terracotta figurines, ceramics, coinage, and minor arts, is covered in all these chapters. Both surviving materials and these known only from inscriptions are included in the study. The analysis of the material evidence aims to demonstrate the relations among the inhabitants of the Hellenistic eastern Mediterranean in terms of cultural, religious, economic, military, and administrative aspects. Chapter 7 offers conclusions. Cyprus and the Levant shows a large scale Ptolemaic impact since the Hellenization coincided with the arrival of the Ptolemies in these regions. However, Asia Minor and the Aegean do not reveal the Ptolemaic influence in great detail since these territories were already Hellenized. Cyrenaica presents a special case since it was also already Greek but received a more direct impact from Egypt.
Open Access
Turkey’s isolation from the regionalization process in the Eastern Mediterranean: a case study of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF)
(2020-08) Gür, Volkan Tibet
The recent offshore gas discoveries in the Eastern Mediterranean has highlighted new conflictual and cooperative dynamics in the region. The study investigates the dynamics of the regionalization process with a special focus on the emergence of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF). More specifically, the study questions how Turkey is isolated from the regionalization process, namely the EMGF, in the Eastern Mediterranean. A framing analysis is conducted to trace which ideas prevailed; and process tracing is used to explain how Turkish, Greek and Greek Cypriot ideas and material interests shaped the regionalization process between 2010 and 2020. It has been argued that conditioning effects of cognitive priors, redefinition of initial ideas and emulation of outside ideas combined with actor’s material interests within the context of changing domestic politics have shaped Turkey’s isolation from the regionalization process.