Greece and Türkiye have exchanged competing maritime notices over the resumption of seabed surveys for the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI), a planned electricity cable linking Greece and Greek Cyprus.
The dispute resurfaced over the weekend after Greece issued a long-awaited NAVTEX, a maritime safety notice, authorizing the French-flagged vessel “Abeille Marengo” to resume survey operations, three months after French investment company Meridiam became the project’s majority shareholder.
Ankara argues that parts of the designated survey area lie within Türkiye’s continental shelf, the outer limits of which were notified to the United Nations on March 18, 2020.
Türkiye has rejected Greece’s maritime notice, maintaining that research activities in the disputed area require its authorization.
Türkiye earlier issued a maritime notice for its own projects to establish an undersea pipeline from the southern province of Mersin to Turkish Cyprus.
On Nov. 6, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said the French-flagged vessel was planning to conduct unauthorized marine scientific research on its continental shelf in the eastern Mediterranean, stressing that the required consent process had not yet been completed.
In a written statement, the ministry said the vessel intended to carry out “unlawful” marine scientific research related to cable-laying activities within Türkiye’s continental shelf.
The ministry said Türkiye canceled unauthorized navigational warnings issued by Greece and the Greek Cypriot administration in connection with the planned activities.
It stressed that the process for obtaining Türkiye’s consent, as required under established principles of international maritime law, had not yet been completed for the portion of the planned activities falling within its continental shelf.
“Türkiye remains fully determined to protect its sovereign rights arising from international law,” the ministry said, adding that Ankara would continue to pursue an approach based on cooperation, dialogue and coordination in the region.
