Yılmaz focuses his criticism on what he sees as the silence on the part of the U.S. regarding the ship-to-ship oil transfers in the Gulf of Laconia, an issue that was in the Greek media in mid-May.
Yılmaz’s argumentation is characterized by a serious lack of knowledge about the international laws and rules governing shipping activities, but this is an issue that does not concern him since at the end of the day the aim is to create a background that will to some extent justify Turkey’s tactics in the face of the measures taken by the international community against Russia.
Specifically, Yılmaz writes that U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, in her assessment regarding sanctions against Russia, said that the U.S. is closely monitoring the issue and that the sanctions imposed on Russia are mainly violated by China, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey.
But apart from the above countries, Yellen said that the U.S. is also closely monitoring Europe on the issue and reiterated her call for compliance with the sanctions.
As Yılmaz writes, “it is perfectly normal for the U.S. to act actively to take advantage of this opportunity against Russia because of the ongoing war in Ukraine. However, it is also a fact that the US does not approach all countries that deal with Russia in the same way.
And while the U.S. Secretary states that China, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey have alarmingly violated sanctions, she does not mention Greece at all.
Since the first day of the war, Russian oil has been transported mainly by Greek tankers and the money for this trade has been transferred to banks in “Southern Cyprus”, (Republic of Cyprus).
Yellen,” she adds, “does not mention Greece, while the U.S. is building a base in Alexandroupolis and trying to build a gas plant (FSRU).
In other words, even when it comes to sanctions against Russia, the U.S. prefers to ignore Greece, the “spoiled” child of the European Union. While remaining silent on Greece’s oil trade, which is one of Russia’s largest sources of revenue, they describe Turkey’s natural gas trade as “alarming.”
Recently,” he continues, “Greece has taken steps to facilitate dialogue with Turkey, which is responding and pursuing a similar policy.
There is nothing wrong with Turkey normalizing its relations with its neighbor. In fact, this can even be described as a desirable situation. However, it is worth noting that the continued double standards of the U.S. are likely to have damaging consequences for Greek-Turkish relations,” he concludes.