Greece
Ankara “cancels” the Greek and Cypriot NAVTEX for the Abeille Marengo as Athens proceeds without its approval
Turkey’s foreign ministry says it has “cancelled” the Greek and Cypriot NAVTEX for the Abeille Marengo cable surveys south of Kasos. Athens, which licensed the work itself as the coastal state, is proceeding.
Athens did exactly what it had announced: it licensed the surveys for the Greece–Cyprus electricity interconnector (GSI) itself, issued a NAVTEX, and the French cable ship Abeille Marengo starts work south of Kasos without Turkish consent. Ankara’s answer came with visible irritation. In statement No. 214, issued on Friday, November 6, the Turkish foreign ministry says it has “cancelled” the NAVTEX of Athens and Nicosia and that the procedure for Turkish “consent” has “not yet been completed”.
The four points of the statement
The statement, posted on the Turkish ministry’s website, is short but dense:
- Ankara notes that a French-flagged vessel intends to carry out “illegal marine scientific research” in order to lay a cable “without permission” inside the Turkish continental shelf, whose outer limits Ankara notified to the UN on March 18, 2020.
- The “unauthorised” navigational warnings (NAVTEX) issued for this purpose by Greece and the Republic of Cyprus, which the Turkish text calls the “Greek Cypriot Administration of Southern Cyprus”, were “cancelled” by Turkey.
- For the part of the work that, according to Ankara, falls within the Turkish continental shelf, the procedure for the consent that must be given by Turkey under the established provisions of the law of the sea “has not yet been completed”.
- Turkey says it is “fully determined” to protect the sovereign rights that, it argues, derive from international law, and that it will continue an approach based on cooperation, dialogue and coordination in the region.
Ankara’s “consent”
In the third point, Ankara does not stop at cancelling the NAVTEX. It claims that for the part of the work it places on the Turkish continental shelf, Turkish consent is required and the relevant procedure is “not yet complete”. Athens has licensed the work itself, as the coastal state, and does not recognise any Turkish competence to approve surveys in an area it regards as the Greek continental shelf.
The statement followed the Turkish counter-NAVTEX 1105/26 from the Antalya station, which had already called the Greek station “unauthorised” and cited the same 2020 letter to the UN (document A/74/757).
The Greek side
Athens moved on its own licence. Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis signed the decision after a positive opinion from the interministerial committee, following a request from Nexans, and the Hellenic Navy Hydrographic Service issued NAVTEX 1411/26. The Abeille Marengo’s work is scheduled from November 6, 2026 to March 6, 2027, starting at the point south of Kasos where it had stopped in 2024.
With the 2020 letter, Turkey lodged at the UN the limits of the continental shelf it claims in the Eastern Mediterranean, tied to the illegal Turkish-Libyan memorandum. These limits largely ignore the effect of Greek islands such as Kasos, Karpathos and Crete. Greece rejects these claims on the basis of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
Two days earlier, in statement No. 212, the Turkish foreign ministry had given Ankara’s reply to the European Commission’s report. The key question now is whether the “cancellation” will remain on paper or be accompanied by the presence of Turkish warships in the area, as in July 2024, when Turkish warships moved close to the Ievoli Relume.