How can we decolonise Euro-Mediterranean relations? This issue has a number of cultural, political and religious-related aspects and narratives. The “colonial echoes” rooted in the process of simplification which, particularly in the last few decades, has often reduced much of the history of the Mediterranean to a Eurocentric and mono-dimensional narrative. It is necessary to unlearn in order to relearn, to deconstruct in order to reconstruct and study the Mediterranean from another perspective.

The discovery of hydrocarbons in Eastern Mediterranean waters was quickly followed by a resurgence in territorial disputes which have further complicated efforts to resolve the decades-old Cyprus conflict. The tensions between Turkey and Greece over maritime rights in the eastern Mediterranean, partly stemming from the unresolved conflict over the divided island of Cyprus, increased last summer.