Turkey extends drilling in eastern Mediterranean waters

SANAA, Oct. 22 (YPA) – Turkey announced that it has extended the stay of its survey vessel Oroç Reis and two other ships in the disputed area in the eastern Mediterranean until 27 October.
According to the agency “Reuters”, the Turkish Navy said in a maritime notice that the other two ships, Ataman and Genghis Han, will continue to work alongside Oroç Reis in the southeastern region of the Greek island of Rhodes until 27 October. The three ships were previously scheduled to operate until October 22.

It is noteworthy that there is a dispute between Turkey and Greece, two members of NATO, over conflicting claims for entitlement to energy resources in the eastern Mediterranean, and they have overlapping visions regarding the borders of the continental shelf for each of them.

Earlier, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that he did not want to exclude Turkey, indicating that its behavior leads to this because it preferred the exploration ships to the talks.

Mitsotakis continued, during a joint press conference in Nicosia, accompanied by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and Greek President Nikos Anastasiades, last Wednesday: “Ankara preferred attacks over the return of the exploratory talks and preferred to send exploration ships to the eastern Mediterranean.”

He continued, “I discussed with the Egyptian and Cypriot presidents the Turkish maritime memorandum with Libya and how it adopts maritime borders that do not exist.”

Tensions flared up between Turkey and Greece last August, when Ankara sent the vessel Oroç President to waters over which Greece and Cyprus also claim sovereignty.