‘US inconsistent on maritime claims’
TURKEY has accused the US of being “inconsistent” after the State Department said on Tuesday that it “deplores” Turkey’s announcement that it is sending the Oruç Reis seismic research vessel back into the Eastern Mediterranean.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Hami Aksoy, responding to comments by his American counterpart Morgan Ortagus, said on Tuesday: “The US has already declared that the Seville Map, representing the maximalist maritime jurisdiction claims of the Greek/Greek Cypriot duo, does not have any legal significance.
“It is thus a serious contradiction for the US to criticise Oruç Reis’s seismic survey activities as carried out within the Turkish continental shelf. This inconsistency is also being observed in the statements of some EU member states.
“The party increasing tensions in the Aegean and the Mediterranean is not Turkey, but rather the Greek Cypriot Administration and Greece.”
Ms Ortagus had said that Turkey’s decision to redeploy the Oruç Reis would only serve to raise tensions.
“The United States deplores Turkey’s October 11 announcement of renewed Turkish survey activity in areas over which Greece asserts jurisdiction in the Eastern Mediterranean,” she said. “Turkey’s announcement unilaterally raises tensions in the region and deliberately complicates the resumption of crucial exploratory talks between our Nato allies Greece and Turkey.
“Coercion, threats, intimidation, and military activity will not resolve tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean.
“We urge Turkey to end this calculated provocation and immediately begin exploratory talks with Greece. Unilateral actions cannot build trust and will not produce enduring solutions.”
An earlier statement by the Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the Oruç Reis vessel resumed its seismic survey activity on Monday following a “month-long maintenance and repair operation”. “The activity, which will last until October 22, is entirely within the Turkish continental shelf,” the statement said.
“The survey area is 15km to the nearest point in Turkey and 425km away from the Greek mainland. . . It is unacceptable to object to Turkey, which has the longest continental coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, on account of an activity conducted at a distance of 15km from its mainland.”
It added: “The claims of Greece that the island of Kastellorizo can create a maritime area of 40,000 square kilometres are compatible neither with international law nor with international court decisions.”