Turkey-backed ship stirs Aegean dispute
Güncelleme Tarihi:
ANKARA - A Norwegian ship surveying waters for Turkey has caused a longstanding dispute between Greece and Turkey to resurface. Greece accused the ship, which was conducting activities for scientific purposes on Turkey's behalf, of prospecting for oil on its continental shelf.
Turkey's longstanding territorial disputes with Greece over the continental shelf have resurfaced in the Mediterranean. The latest dispute comes over the activities of a Norwegian ship operating on Turkey's behalf for scientific purposes over the weekend.
Athens News Agency, or ANA, and other Greek media reported that a Norwegian ship, the M/V Malene Ostervold, "was prospecting for oil in the Mediterranean within the continental shelf of Greece," 80 miles south of Meis island, located a few kilometers away from Turkey's southern coast, with the accompaniment of a Turkish frigate Gediz. The information was based on reports from the Greek chief of staff.
The Greek assault boat Polemistis moved as close as five miles of Gediz but tensions ended when both warships left the region. ANA also reported that the two warships communicated with each other on the issue of sovereignty in the region.
"Athens took action because a majority of the region is within Greek territorial waters," Greek Foreign Ministry spokesman Yorgo Kumu?akos said, adding they were pursuing diplomatic channels in regard to the issue in Oslo and Ankara. Greek foreign Minister Dora Bakoyanni contacted her Norwegian counterpart, Jonas Gahr Store, and Greece's ambassador to Oslo conveyed the Greek claims to the owner of the Norwegian ship, who then notified Greek authorities it had ended its activities, Kumu?akos said.
Turkish Foreign Ministry sources, however, announced that "the zone where the Turkish Petroleum Corporation, or TPAO, contracted the Norwegian ship M/V Malene Ostervold a geophysics research" fell under Turkish maritime authority.
Turkey and Greece cannot agree on the definition of the delimitation of the continental shelf, which allows a littoral country to exploit reserves under the seabed. Continental shelf is mostly defined as an area which extends at most for 200 nautical miles under international law, but the close space between the Greek islands on the Aegean and the Mediterranean to Turkish landmass cause disputes over to what extent the standard applies in the region. Turkey says the Greek continental shelf begins from the Greek mainland.