Navies roam eastern Med

October 18, 2011

NAVIES from at least three countries are converging on the eastern Mediterranean in the vicinity of Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), according to reports yesterday, as Turkey continued talking tough and asserting its geo-strategic interests in the region.

The Jerusalem Post said Turkey has deployed gunboats and helicopters to escort its research vessel, the Piri Reis, as it explores for gas and oil. According to the paper, the United States has discreetly dispatched an aircraft, and Russian naval vessels have been seen patrolling.

The same report said US reconnaissance planes have circled the Piri Reis on at least two occasions, and on another occasion low-flying Israeli fighter jets and choppers “harassed” a Turkish ship.

Local media meanwhile said a French corvette was expected to arrive in waters southwest of Cyprus’ Block 12 gas prospect and would be patrolling the area for a month. Other reports insisted a Russian submarine is already patrolling the same waters, while a Russian “armada,” or an aircraft carrier, is set to arrive sometime in the next few weeks.

The Piri Reis was said to be operating within Block 12 in relative proximity to the Homer Ferrington rig, located some 160 km off the coast. Vessel-tracking website marinetraffic.com likewise placed the Turkish ship there.

Turkey’s Institute of Marine Science and Technology, which owns and operates the vessel, said the Piri Reis would remain in the area for a week more.

Turkey disputes Cypriot and Israeli offshore territorial claims and says Cyprus should not exploit resources until it resolves a standoff with its breakaway Turkish-speaking north.

Energy reserves in the Mediterranean have further raised the stakes in existing political disputes in the region.

Dependence on imported energy has helped push Turkey’s current account deficit to about 10 per cent of gross domestic product this year.

The US Geological survey estimates that the Levant Basin, a triangular slice of the Mediterranean lying between Cyprus and Israel, may hold 122 trillion cubic feet of gas. That’s more than the 86.2 trillion cubic feet held by all EU countries combined, according to the BP Statistical Review of World Energy.

Speaking on Turkish television channel Kanal 7, Turkey’s Minister for EU Affairs Egemen Bagis called Greek Cypriots the “Trojan Horse of Israel”.

Bagis reiterated that Cypriot drilling was a “provocation” to Ankara, adding: “They are drilling holes in the Mediterranean … as if the natural resources around the island are a fizzy drink. It’s not as if the gas is going anywhere.”

And Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu again stressed the Turkish side would press ahead with explorations as long as Greek Cypriots continued doing so.

“As you know, we have rights in these territories, we also have rights in the undersea resources,” Eroglu told reporters.

Responding to Bagis’ comments, Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis said gung-ho statements like these show that Turkey not adhere to international rules.

“It is the EU candidate who must adapt to the bloc, and not vice versa,” said Marcoullis. “It seems they have not understood this basic fact which governs the relations of all candidate countries.”

She confirmed that the government has made representations to the United Nations Security Council over the Piri Reis’ forays into Cypriot waters.

Representations have been lodged too to France and Norway over the presence of the Burgen Surveyor, a vessel also conducting undersea research off Cyprus’ coast on Turkey’s behalf. Owned by French company CGG Veritas, the ship is sailing under Norway’s flag.

Marcoullis is planning a visit to Egypt early next month to discuss bilateral relations and energy cooperation.

Speaking to reporters yesterday after meeting Egypt’s new ambassador to Nicosia Menha Mahrous Bakhoum, the Foreign Minister said the two countries have signed an agreement for the joint exploitation of hydrocarbons.

Calling her upcoming visit to Cairo “significant”, Marcoullis noted she hoped the two nations would soon ratify the agreement.

On a deal between Cyprus and Lebanon delineating their respective EEZs, which has yet to be ratified by the Lebanese parliament, she said a team of experts from the neighbouring country would be coming here possibly this week or the next to discuss details of a technical nature.

The aim of the visit would be to “talk, on a technocratic level, about some of the concerns Lebanon has, not over the agreement between the Republic and Lebanon, but about certain coordinates relating the EEZs between Lebanon and Israel.”

The government is meanwhile pressing ahead with initiating the second round of licensing for the remaining 11 gas prospects in its EEZ.