Greek Warships Are Reportedly Near Turkish Exploration Vessel Actively Disrupting Seismic Signals
Tyler Durden
Wed, 08/12/2020 – 03:30
Greek national media reported on Tuesday, that the Greek Armed Forces are on high alert, at a time when the eastern Mediterranean region is witnessing tensions with Turkey due to its eastern Mediterranean oil and gas exploration.
The Greek newspaper Ekathimirini reports that “Greece’s armed forces were placed in a state of absolute readiness, with units of the Hellenic Navy and Air Force deployed in the wider sea area where the Turkish research was expected.”
This moves comes at a time when the Turkish Navy is escorting the seismic exploration vessel, Oruc Reis, near or within Cypriot and Greek territorial waters, which is currently being closely monitored by Egypt and Greece.
On Monday, the Turkish Navy issued a navigational notification saying that the Turkish vessel would conduct seismic surveys in the eastern Mediterranean during the next two weeks.
In response, the Greek Foreign Ministry announced that Athens had urged Turkey to stop illegal actions in the eastern Mediterranean, and that these activities were provocative and undermine peace and security in the region.
“Greece will not accept blackmail. It will defend its sovereign rights,” the Greek foreign ministry statement said.
“When the Oruc Reis accompanied by ships of the Turkish Navy entered the Greek continental shelf, Greek warships sent messages at a frequency of about 15 minutes requesting the vessel’s removal from the area,” Ekathimirini reports.
“The messages went unanswered by the vessel which, however, moving at a low speed – similar to that appropriate for a search process – had prepared cables to lower to the seabed in order to proceed with research activities in the area,” the report continues.
Turkey shares map of Oruc Reis’s offshore activity https://t.co/ZyOsRyCqKa pic.twitter.com/2XtY2tRDpk
— ANADOLU AGENCY (ENG) (@anadoluagency) August 10, 2020
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
Thus far Greece has reportedly been able to successfully prevent and delay Turkish seismic exploration.
“However, according to sources, exploratory activities were rendered impossible due to the noise caused by the many naval units sailing in the area. This is because exploration of this sort entails the transmission of data from the seabed and the noise of the ships made this transmission impossible,” writes Ekathimirini.
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