Greece bracing for Turkish drilling announcements
Athens was on standby on Thursday in view of the imminent announcements by Ankara regarding new exploratory drilling by the Turkish Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) as to where the Abdulhamid Han drilling vessel will move in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Meanwhile, both Greece and Turkey have issued navigational telexes (Navtex) over the same areas. More specifically, on Tuesday night, the hydrographic station of Antalya issued a Navtex to counter that issued by the Hellenic Navy reserving an area south and west of the Greek island of Kastellorizo.
Last week the Israeli Navy had requested and received permission from Athens to carry out naval drills in two areas south of Crete until Friday. One area was clearly outside the zones of the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum, while part of the second area includes part of this area.
