Leaked Letter Reveals Turkey and Syria Drafting East Med EEZ Pact

A leaked letter dated 16 June 2025 and signed by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan confirms that Ankara is holding secret talks with Syria’s post-Assad transitional government on drawing a bilateral maritime boundary in the eastern Mediterranean, according to documents published by Stockholm-based investigative outlet Nordic Monitor. The correspondence instructs several Turkish state bodies to draft an Exclusive Economic Zone agreement with Damascus, marking the first official acknowledgment that negotiations are already under way. Fidan writes that any accord must protect the rights of both Turkey and the self-declared Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, and rejects suggestions that the European Union may block or comment on the deal. Diplomats and analysts say a Turkey-Syria EEZ pact could reshape contested energy claims in the region and heighten friction with Greece, Cyprus and Brussels, echoing the backlash that followed Ankara’s contentious 2019 maritime memorandum with Libya.