Greece puts army on high alert and convenes security council over mounting Turkey tensions

Dispute over whether islands should be included in calculating country’s continental shelf and maritime zones of economic interest

Turkey's research vessel, Oruc Reis, anchored off the coast of Antalya on the Mediterranean, Turkey. A top Turkish official said Tuesday that Turkey will suspend research for oil and gas exploration in disputed waters in the Eastern Mediterranean (AP)

Greece’s prime minister convened the government’s national security council on Monday, after Turkey announced its research vessel would be conducting energy research in the eastern Mediterranean in an area between Cyprus and Greece.

The council includes the ministers of foreign affairs and defence.

Turkey issued a Navtex, or international maritime safety message, announcing its research vessel Oruc Reis and two auxiliary vessels would be conducting seismic exploration from Monday until 23 August. Last week, Turkey also announced it would be conducing a firing exercise in the eastern Mediterranean this Monday and Tuesday.

Greece on Monday issued its own maritime safety message saying the Turkish Navtex on seismic research had been issued by an “unauthorised station” and referred to “unauthorised and illegal activity in an area that overlaps the Greek continental shelf”.

A crucial issue of the dispute is whether islands should be included in calculating a country’s continental shelf and maritime zones of economic interest. Turkey argues they should not be, a position Greece says violates international law. Greece has thousands of islands and islets in the Aegean and Ionian seas, around 200 of them inhabited.

Turkish energy and natural resources minister Fatih Donmez said on Monday that the Oruc Reis had arrived in its area of operation from its anchorage off Turkey’s southern coast. “83 million back the Oruc Reis,” he tweeted, referring to Turkey’s population.

Tension has been high in the region in recent months over drilling rights and maritime boundaries. Late last month, Turkey had said it was suspending its exploratory operations in the eastern Mediterranean, and the move was seen as somewhat defusing the situation. But last week Ankara slammed a deal signed last between Greece and Egypt delineating maritime boundaries and the countries’ exclusive economic zones for drilling rights.

Last year, Turkey signed a similar deal with the UN-backed Libyan government in Tripoli, sparking outrage in Greece, Cyprus and Egypt, who all said it infringed on their economic rights in the Mediterranean. The European Union says it’s a violation of intentional law that threatens stability in the region.

Nato allies and neighbours Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a wide variety of issues, including sea boundaries, and have come to the brink of war three times since the mid-1970s. Recent discoveries of natural gas and drilling plans across the east Mediterranean have led to a spike in tension.

Greek prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis spoke on Monday morning with European Council president Charles Michel, informing him about the Greek-Egyptian agreement and the situation in the eastern Mediterranean, officials said. He was scheduled to speak to Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg on Monday afternoon.

In a television interview late on Sunday, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, said Turkey and Greece had been holding talks in Berlin for 2 months and were on the verge of issuing a joint statement when the Greek-Egyptian agreement emerged.

“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,”’ Mr 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,” Mr Kalin said.

Mr Kalin said Turkey is in favour of resolving the dispute through a dialogue.

“But it is the Greek side that disrupted the agreement and broke the trust,” he said.

AP