Turkey Sends Research Ship To East Med Despite Athens Anger

Ankara, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 10th Aug, 2020 ) :Turkey dispatched a research ship to the eastern Mediterranean on Monday, a move likely to cause further tensions with its neighbour Greece.

There has been a scramble to exploit recently discovered gas reserves by Turkey, Greece and Cyprus, with competing claims over the area and who they belong to.

Turkish Energy Minister Fatih Donmez tweeted on Monday the seismic research ship, Oruc Reis, had "reached the destination where work would be undertaken".

"Our efforts in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea for Turkey's energy independence will continue uninterrupted," Donmez added.

Turkey sent out a message on NAVTEX, the international maritime navigational telex system, announcing the vessel would be carrying out activities in the area between August 10 and 23.

Turkey's plans for Oruc Reis to search for hydrocarbons off the island of Meis (Kastellorizo in Greek) had infuriated Athens last month.

Then Ankara agreed to suspend "for a while" the search off the Greek island depending on the outcome of negotiations with Athens and EU heavyweight Germany.

But President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday accused the other side of failing to keep promises, and said another vessel, the Barbaros Hayrettin, had been sent to the eastern Mediterranean.

Monday's announcement comes a day after EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the "latest naval mobilisations in the eastern Mediterranean... will lead to a greater antagonism and distrust," as he called the developments "extremely worrying".

There is no sign of a reduction in tensions after Athens and Cairo signed an agreement to set up an exclusive economic zone in the region on Thursday.

The Turkish foreign ministry said the "so-called maritime deal" was "null and void".