European Parliament Report Pulls Cyprus and the Aegean Into Türkiye's NATO File
By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk
The European Parliament's 2025 report on Türkiye pulls Cyprus, the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean energy disputes back into Türkiye's NATO-facing political file just weeks before alliance leaders meet in Ankara.
The report, adopted on June 17 by 381 votes in favour, 107 against and 171 abstentions, concluded that Türkiye's accession negotiations cannot resume under current conditions. But its regional weight sits in the way it links the Cyprus issue, Greece's maritime claims, Türkiye's Blue Homeland doctrine, the Türkiye-Libya maritime memorandum and Eastern Mediterranean energy projects to the European Union's wider political assessment of Ankara.
The report places the disputes shaping Türkiye's relations with Greece and the Greek Cypriot side inside European Union institutional language before a NATO summit that will put Türkiye at the centre of alliance security planning.
Cyprus returns to the EU file
On Cyprus, the Parliament reaffirmed support for a bizonal, bicommunal federation within the United Nations framework and rejected Türkiye's advocacy of a two-state settlement. The wording follows the established European Union line, but its timing matters because United Nations envoy María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar is trying to keep a new round of Cyprus diplomacy alive.
The report does not treat Cyprus as a separate island negotiation. It places the file inside the EU's wider argument over Türkiye's accession path, visa liberalisation and Customs Union modernisation. In that structure, progress with Ankara remains tied to democratic standards, Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean.
The European Parliament's text now overlaps with the Cyprus diplomacy Bosphorus News has been tracking this week. In a June 17 report, Bosphorus News reported that Greece and the Greek Cypriot side were pressing the United Nations framework before Holguín's next Cyprus contacts.
Greece holds the UN framework line
Greece's Foreign Ministry gave the same Cyprus file an official United Nations anchor on June 17, when Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis met Holguín in Athens after her contacts with the Republic of Cyprus president and the Turkish Cypriot leader.
The ministry said Greece supported United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres' efforts for a comprehensive, just and viable settlement under relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions. It also said Athens, "in coordination with the Republic of Cyprus," was ready to contribute constructively to the next steps aimed at restarting talks on the basis of the agreed framework under United Nations auspices.
The wording places Athens, the Greek Cypriot side and the European Parliament on the same institutional line. Cyprus remains, in that reading, a United Nations-framework file built around the federal settlement formula, not a status-recognition process.
Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriot side are on a different line. Ankara has told Holguín that any process ignoring Turkish Cypriot sovereign equality and equal international status cannot produce a lasting result. The clash is therefore not about whether diplomacy should continue. It is about the status and framework under which any new process would begin.
The Aegean and energy layer
The Parliament's report also folds the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean into the same assessment. It criticises Türkiye's Blue Homeland doctrine, expresses concern over Türkiye's 1995 parliamentary position treating a Greek extension of territorial waters in the Aegean to 12 nautical miles as a cause for war, and rejects the Türkiye-Libya maritime memorandum as incompatible with the sovereign rights of third states and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
The report also criticises Türkiye's use of NAVTEX notices and its objections to regional energy projects, including the Great Sea Interconnector and EastMed pipeline. Those files are not identical. The Aegean territorial-waters dispute, maritime delimitation around Libya, Cyprus settlement talks and Eastern Mediterranean energy corridors all have separate legal and diplomatic tracks.
The Parliament's report brings them into one political document. That is why Ankara read the text not only as a rule-of-law report but as a wider position paper on Greece, Cyprus and maritime disputes.
Ankara rejects the political package
Türkiye's Ministry of Foreign Affairs rejected the report as a text built on "misinformation and unfounded claims by anti-Türkiye circles." The ministry said the report appeared to have been drafted with a deliberate political agenda and accused the Parliament of trying to overshadow what it described as a positive agenda in Türkiye-EU relations at a time when the strategic importance of the relationship was increasing.
Presidential Communications Director Burhanettin Duran made the regional objection more explicit. He rejected what he called "baseless and unfair assessments regarding Blue Homeland," support for Greece's maritime demands and a biased stance on Cyprus.
Ankara's response makes the dispute clear. Türkiye does not read the regional sections as neutral European Parliament language on accession. It sees Cyprus, the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean energy projects as political files shaped by Greece, the Greek Cypriot side and anti-Türkiye actors inside European institutions.
Why the NATO timing matters
The report arrives as Türkiye prepares to host NATO leaders in Ankara. The summit will underline Türkiye's role in the alliance's southern flank, the Black Sea, regional defence planning, migration routes and security links from the Balkans to the Middle East.
The European Parliament text points to a different Western track. It keeps Türkiye's European file tied to Cyprus, the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean maritime disputes and domestic political conditions. NATO will meet in Türkiye because Ankara remains central to alliance security. The European Parliament report shows where European political institutions still place limits on the relationship.
The June 17 vote does not change EU policy on its own and will not determine the NATO summit agenda. It returns Cyprus, the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean to Türkiye's wider Western file before leaders gather on Turkish soil.
Sources: European Parliament report A10-0106/2026 and procedure file 2025/2256(INI), European Parliamentary Research Service, Greece's Foreign Ministry, Türkiye Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Anadolu Agency, statements by Burhanettin Duran, Bosphorus News review and reporting.