ISTANBUL (dpa-AFX) – Turkey has again sent a drilling ship to the eastern Mediterranean. The ship “Abdülhamid Han” will “continue to search until it finds something,” said Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday in Mersin, southern Turkey. In 2020, the dispatch of Turkish drillships into disputed waters between Greece and Turkey had brought the two neighbors to the brink of military conflict.
The ship will now first head to the Iskenderun region, Erdogan said. The is initially not in disputed waters. But Erdogan added: “When our ship finishes drilling there, it will not stop. It will move to other wells.” The “research and drilling work” fell into “their own sphere of influence”. “We don’t need to get anyone’s permission or approval for that.” You will get “what is ours”.
Territorial divisions are behind the conflict. Greece accused Turkey of illegally exploring the deposits in 2020. The government in Ankara took the position that the waters belonged to the Turkish continental shelf./apo/DP/jha