Türkiye Projects Influence on Multiple Fronts as Aegean Tensions Reach Brussels

Ankara spent May 15 reaching for influence on four different fronts at once, against the background of an Iran war that is still pushing economic and security agendas across the wider region. The day's headline confrontation arrived from Athens. Greek Shipping Minister Vasilis Kikilias formally asked the European Commission to step in over what he described as unlawful Turkish fishing and violations of the law of the sea in the Aegean, raising the issue with European Fisheries and Oceans Commissioner Costas Kadis. 'Our maritime borders are also European borders, and the law of the sea applies to everyone,' Kikilias said, citing 'provocative behaviour' over unlawful fishing, non-respect of the law of the sea and disputes over sovereign rights. Greece has designated restricted fishing areas in the Aegean that Ankara has rejected as outside its jurisdiction, and Athens has protested against a Turkish maritime spatial plan that designates fishing zones. The Greek complaint lands as Türkiye prepares to vote by June on a so-called Blue Homeland Law that, according to a recent Bloomberg report, would codify Ankara's claims to maritime economic zones in the Aegean and the rest of the eastern Mediterranean. Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis warned a day earlier that any 'unilateral attempt to implement maritime claims outside the framework of international law is essentially bound to fail.'

On the economic track, Türkiye made its most explicit play yet for the foreign capital leaving the Gulf. Ankara announced a 20-year corporate-tax exemption for companies moving regional headquarters to the Istanbul Financial Center, alongside personal-tax incentives for relocating professionals. Google Cloud committed to a $3 billion hyperscale data centre in Ankara; Amazon Web Services and Microsoft are reassessing their Gulf partnerships. The dislocation of the Gulf states' $500 billion Stargate AI project — and the departure of around 500,000 foreign residents and 15,000 companies between February 28 and March 31 — has handed Türkiye an opening it has not enjoyed in the cloud-infrastructure race so far.

From Turkistan, Kazakhstan, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan used the informal summit of the Organization of Turkic States to push the bloc toward tighter defence and digital cooperation. Citing Palestine, Lebanon, Iran and Ukraine as proof of a region in permanent crisis, he called for industrial coordination among Turkic states and said Türkiye would prioritise cybersecurity coordination during its upcoming OTS chairmanship. The visit was paired with bilateral talks in which Ankara and Astana signed 13 agreements on investment, energy, defence and infrastructure.

And in Washington, a panel organised by Türkiye's Directorate of Communications and SETA framed the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara on July 7-8 as a chance to 'reshape' the alliance, with officials and analysts including former US ambassador James Jeffrey highlighting Türkiye's growing strategic role from Ukraine to the Middle East. It will be the second time Türkiye hosts a NATO gathering, after Istanbul in 2004 — and comes as Berlin signalled the Bundeswehr could join the British-French Hormuz-security mission and as Turkic neighbours queue for security guarantees.

Two further items completed the day. The Sumud Land Convoy, carrying more than 300 activists from 30 to 35 countries — including 50 from Türkiye — said it expects to reach Gaza within five to six days from western Libya, transporting medical aid, ambulances and family containers in a renewed attempt to break the blockade after past failed missions. And Türkiye deployed its newest deep-sea drilling vessel, Yıldırım, on its first operational mission at the Türkali-16 well in the Black Sea, expanding the deep-sea fleet there to five vessels in support of the 710 bcm Sakarya gas field that is central to Ankara's strategy of cutting energy-import dependence.