Turkey restarts drilling in the Med, stoking tensions with Greece

Tensions between Greece and Turkey have flared up again over the extraction of natural resources in the eastern Mediterranean, as the Greek government hit out at Turkey after it announced renewed exploratory drilling in waters around Cyprus.

The Greek military are on alert, according to officials, as Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday brought together the government's national security council to discuss Turkey’s decision to send its Oruc Reis research vessel, along with two auxiliary ships, into the contested waters from Monday until 23 August.

Turkey's energy and natural resources minister, Fatih Donmez, announced on Monday that the ship had already anchored in the eastern Mediterranean, tweeting that "83 million back the Oruc Reis," referring to Turkey's population.

"Greece will not accept any blackmail. It will defend its sovereignty and sovereign rights," Greece's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. "We call on Turkey to immediately end its illegal actions that undermine peace and security in the region."

Turkish seismic research vessel Oruc Reis sails through the Mediterranean after leaving a port in Antalya. /Turkish Ministry of Energy/Reuters

New deals and mobilization

Despite Turkey's announcement last month that it was suspending exploratory drilling in the eastern Mediterranean, a new deal signed by Greece and Egypt agreeing the countries' exclusive economic zones for extraction rights in the area was followed by Ankara ending its drilling hiatus, stoking fresh tensions.

In response to Ankara's move, Greece also issued a maritime safety message in response to renewed Turkish drilling, referring to "unauthorized and illegal activity in an area that overlaps the Greek continental shelf."

Greece's minister of state, Giorgos Gerapetritis, said on state television station ERT that the Oruc Reis was being monitored by the Greek navy: "We are at full political and operational readiness."

He added: "The majority of the fleet is ready at this moment to go out wherever is needed. Our ships that are sailing in crucial areas were already in place days ago. If necessary, there will be a greater development of the fleet.

"It is clear that we are not seeking any tension in the region. On the other hand, our determination is a given."

Ankara's Oruc Reis research vessel has returned to the eastern Mediterranean. /Yoruk Isik/ Reuters

Broken trust and escalation

The flare-up follows a statement from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, on Sunday, who said that Ankara and Athens had been holding talks in Berlin for two-and-a-half months and were close to announcing a joint statement when the Greece-Egypt agreement happened.

"The moment the agreement with Egypt was announced, we received a clear instruction from our president: 'You are halting the talks. Inform the Germans and the Greeks, we are not pressing ahead with the negotiations,'" Kalin told CNN-Turk television.

"This is another move to keep Turkey out of the eastern Mediterranean and to restrict it to the Gulf of Antalya," Kalin said.

Kalin said Ankara would prefer to resolve the dispute through diplomacy, "but it is the Greek side that disrupted the agreement and broke the trust."

Last week, Turkey also announced it would be conducting a firing exercise in the eastern Mediterranean southwest of the Turkish coast between Turkey and the Greek island of Rhodes.

The Greek ministry said Monday’s move from Turkey "combined with the observed broad mobilization of units of the Turkish navy, constitutes a new serious escalation."

Mitsotakis spoke to European Council President Charles Michel and discussed the situation further with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Monday.

After the conversation, Stoltenberg tweeted that "the situation must be resolved in a spirit of Allied solidarity and in accordance with international law."

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Christofer Burger said Berlin had "taken note with concern" of Turkey's move to conduct hydrocarbon exploration in the area.

He added that Foreign Minister Heiko Maas "has repeatedly said that international law must be respected and that we need steps toward de-escalation in the eastern Mediterranean. And in view of this, further seismic exploration is certainly the wrong signal at this time."

Turkey's President Erdogan on Friday accused Greece of failing to keep promises over drilling rights in the eastern Mediterranean. /Murad Sezer/Reuters

Historic tensions

There have been decades of differences between Ankara and Athens over maritime boundaries in the area, with the discovery of natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean at the turn of the century stoking the flames between the two NATO members.

Last year, Turkey signed a deal with the UN-backed Libyan government in Tripoli delineating an exclusive economic zone between their waters, which Greece, along with Cyprus and Egypt, criticized, saying it infringed on their economic rights in the waters.

The European Union described the 2019 agreement as a violation of intentional law that threatened stability in the region.

However, the move from Ankara was seen as a last-ditch response to being cut out of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum (EMGF), a body convened by Israel, Egypt, Greece, Jordan, the State of Palestine and Italy that was set up to make the states and nations the main providers of natural gas to Europe. Turkey was not given a seat at the table.

Turkey's return to the waters between Cyprus and Greece signals renewed hostilities between the two NATO allies, with EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell saying the "latest naval mobilizations in the eastern Mediterranean ... will lead to a greater antagonism and distrust."

He described the developments as "extremely worrying."

Source(s): AP ,AFP