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Asharq Al-Awsat
Asharq Al-Awsat
World
Asharq Al-Awsat

Turkey Restarts Drilling in Eastern Mediterranean

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan talks to media after attending Friday prayers at Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque in Istanbul, Turkey August 7, 2020. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

President Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that Turkey had resumed energy exploration work in the eastern Mediterranean as Greece had not kept its promises regarding such activities in the region.

"We have started drilling work again," Erdogan told reporters on Friday.

He said Turkey's Barbaros Hayreddin Pasa, a seismic survey vessel, had been sent to the region to carry out its duties. The ship moved into waters off Cyprus in late July and remains in that region.

Erdogan made the comments when asked about an accord signed by Egypt and Greece on Thursday designating an exclusive economic zone between the two nations in the east Mediterranean.

Diplomats in Greece said their agreement nullified an accord reached last year between Turkey and the internationally recognized government of Libya, Reuters reported.

However, Erdogan said the Egypt-Greece accord was of no value and that Turkey would sustain its agreement with Libya "decisively".

The Turkish Foreign Ministry has said the Egypt-Greece zone falls in the area of Turkey's continental shelf.

Turkey and Greece are also at odds over a range of issues from flights over each other's territory in the Aegean Sea to ethnically divided Cyprus.

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