In an interview published on Friday by the Turkish newspaper Sabah, Turkey’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar announced that Ankara is seeking to conduct offshore surveys for hydrocarbons in Libyan maritime zones.
TURKEY
With the scars still visible on his body 50 years after Turkey invaded Cyprus, Angelos Vougioukas, a member of the Panhellenic Association of Cyprus Fighters of 1974, looks back on the crucial first hours of the Turkish occupation of Cyprus, and the 99 days he spent as a prisoner of the Turkish forces.
In a stern warning to its Aegean rival Turkey, Greece indicated on Friday that it will not tolerate any illegal Turkish activities within the exclusive economic zone established by the 2020 deal between Athens and Cairo.
This week saw tensions between Greece and Turkey reach levels we have not seen since 2022 in the Aegean as Turkey sent its warships into an area south of the Greek islands of Kassos and Karpathos.
After the naval incident in the southeastern Aegean, where a flotilla of Turkish ships gathered near two Greek islands, Kassos and Karpathos, claiming that a research ship had violated its continental shelf, Turkey insists that it was the one that gave the ship permission to conclude its research and depart, implying that the Greek navigational warning that described the research ship’s mission was invalid.
The Turkish National Security Council (NSC) convened on Thursday under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and reaffirmed Ankara’s stance on the Aegean and Cyprus issues.
Calling the forthcoming United States election as consequential may be an understatement.
Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, in an interview with Real FM on Thursday, refuted the Turkish claim that Athens has accepted Turkey’s expansionist demands in the southern Aegean following this week’s incident.
Turkey on Thursday sought to frame this week’s events in the southeastern Aegean as a validation of its expansionist claims in the region.
The intensity of the diplomatic efforts to de-escalate tensions between Greece and Turkey over the past few days attests to the seriousness of the incident.
Turkish authorities have detained 72 people suspected of having ties to the militant group Islamic State in operations across 13 provinces, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media platform X on Thursday.
Greek diplomatic sources on Wednesday reacted to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s remarks about the Muslim minority in Thrace, emphasizing that minority members enjoy equality before the law and that their rights are fully respected.
Amberin Zaman, Al-Monitor’s chief correspondent covering major stories on the Middle East and North Africa, joins me to look into the protests that rocked Armenia over the past few months, and break down what’s at stake in the region as Azerbaijan – backed by Turkey – continues to demand further concessions from Armenia.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reiterated on Wednesday that the only solution to the decades-long dispute over Cyprus is to establish two separate states on the island.
A Turkish parliamentary commission has approved a bill aimed at regulating the country’s large stray dog population, a move that has raised concerns among animal rights advocates who fear many of the dogs would be killed or end up in neglected and overcrowded shelters.
The research vessel Ievoli Relume has departed from the maritime area south of the island of Kassos in the southern Aegean, escorted by the Greek Navy gunboat Aittitos, Kathimerini reports.
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