Nicosia, 21 October 2026

H.E. Mr. Lauri Hussar,

President,

Riigikogu (Estonian Parliament),

Tallinn.

Excellency,

I communicate with you to express my deep concern regarding the decision of the

House of Representatives of Libya under its new President, Mr. Al-Salheen Abdulnabi, to

approve the so-called Türkiye-Libya Memorandum of Understanding on delimitation of the

maritime jurisdiction areas in the Mediterranean of 2019, which disrupts balances and

further destabilises the Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean region.

The said decision does not legitimise an unfounded and illegal agreement, which

lacks a legal basis for the delimitation of maritime zones between two countries, Türkiye

and Libya in this case, that do not have opposite or adjacent coasts, while it disregards the

rights of the Greek islands to maritime zones, including the exclusive economic zone and

the continental shelf, under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and

customary international law. All the more so, that any extension of Libya's maritime zone is

based on claims that usurp Greek sovereign rights.

In light of the increasing tension and tectonic changes taking place in the wider

Middle East and Eastern Mediterranean region, this is an extremely worrisome

development that reflects Ankara's broad influence in Libya at the political, military and

investment levels, while given the transitional situation in Libya, questions are raised about

the legitimacy of political and institutional bodies to proceed with agreements that bind

Libya in the long term.

Cyprus, as an island state and the closest member of the European Union to the

region, which has been suffering for fifty-two years now the dire consequences of the

Turkish invasion and continuing occupation of more than one-third of its territory and

Turkey's escalating provocations on the ground and its Exclusive Economic Zone, is

particularly concerned by this development for all the above reasons.

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Dear Colleague,

This act is yet another challenge to the rules-based international order, which

pertains to the violations of the sovereign rights of third states and undermines security,

weakens respect for international law, including the UNCLOS, and sets a dangerous

precedent that threatens stability and cooperation at sea.

I would therefore call upon you to condemn the aproval by the Parliament of Libya,

as not producing legal international results and as not legitimising the illegal Türkiye-

Libya Memorandum and to exert your influence within the framework of parliamentary

diplomacy so that Turkey desists from its expansionist claims and complies with its

international obligations.

I would also kindly ask you to consider my proposal for this matter to be raised as

urgent in the European Parliament and other international parliamentary organisations,

namely the Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of

Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in

Europe, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean and the Parliamentary Assembly

of the Union for the Mediterranean.

Yours sincerely,

Annita Demetriou,

President of the House of Representatives

of the Republic of Cyprus.