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OCTOBER 15, 2020 | The Jewish Home
The Week In News
Egypt and Greece Maritime Agreement
raising the prospect of war between Ankara and Athens. While Turkey eventually backed down, the move was seen as another instance of aggression towards its neighbors. Both Egypt and Greece are partners in the newly-formed Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF), which includes Israel, Italy, Greece, Jordan and Cyprus and was founded to block Turkey’s energy ambitions. The forum, established as a joint venture between Israel and Egypt in light of the discoveries of natural gas in the Mediterranean, became an official international body last week following the establishment of the Constitution.
Babi Yar Mystery Solved Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi over the weekend approved a maritime treaty his country reached with Greece in August. The Egyptian press reported that Sisi ratified the agreement on Saturday. Egypt’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the treaty was signed “due to the desire of the two countries to contribute to the stability of the region, in good faith, in accordance with international law as well as their desire in enhancing mutual cooperation, neighborly relations and bonds of friendship.” The treaty defines the waterways between Egypt and Greece and allows both countries to utilize all of their natural resources, including oil and natural gas. The EgyptGreece deal stipulates the “partial demarcation of the sea boundaries between the two countries, and that the remaining demarcation would be achieved through consultations.” Both the Egyptian and Greek Parliament had already approved the deal in September. The agreement between the two countries is seen as a response to an accord Turkey signed with Libya in 2019 granting Ankara drilling rights in the Mediterranean Sea. A rival of both Greece and Egypt, the agreement was viewed as an attempt by Turkey to muscle in on the Mediterranean’s natural resources. Tensions peaked this past August after Turkey sent the Oruç Reis to drill in waters claimed by Greece,
The two-day German “aktion” at Babi Yar, where the Germans and Ukrainians slaughtered 33,771 people decades ago, was one of the largest open-air massacres but its precise location had remained a mystery for nearly 80 years. Recently, however, a former Scotland Yard investigator solved the 1941 mystery together with the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, creating a 3D simulation of the site where at least 70,000 others were killed during the months following the original massacre. Speaking with the Times of Israel, investigator Martin Dean said, “I believe my work goes considerably beyond the previous understanding of historians that have worked on this topic. “The Germans feared the Soviets would use any such evidence for propaganda purposes. Ironically some of what we know about the locations of the shootings comes from about a dozen former prisoners who burned the corpses but then managed to escape just before the Nazis planned to kill them.” He added, “In the end, I conducted around nine months of careful
