Turkey Chooses Gas Over Diplomacy
On Monday Turkey resumed its seismic survey in the Eastern Mediterranean south of Greece. This latest survey concerning hydrocarbon resources for oil and gas drilling is seen as further aggression towards Greece, especially with the research vessel’s naval entourage.
The survey is 6.5 nautical miles from Greek shores which Turkey claims is fully within the Turkish continental shelf. Tensions peaked over the summer between Greece and Turkey after they claimed areas of the Mediterranean that overlap.
Turkey had removed their survey vessel from the area in mid-September to “allow for diplomacy” ahead of the October 1st EU summit, at which members threatened sanctions if operations continue in the area. The return of the research vessels has been widely condemned and on Tuesday the US demanded that Turkey end their “calculated provocation.”
Sources
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/10/12/greece-calls-turkeys-survey-in-east-med-major-escalation
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-53906360
https://www.ft.com/content/e872ed5d-1f64-48ae-8b8d-d6b49476e749
(this article provides further detail of the gas resources in the area)