Turkish daily calls Greece’s NAVTEX for EUNOMIA a “pirate NAVTEX” – “We will not allow faits accomplis” to Athens and Nicosia

The pro-government Turkish daily Türkiye Gazetesi returned on Monday, October 19 to the dispute over the NAVTEX messages south of Kastellorizo, with an article by Yeşim Eraslan headlined, in translation, “Pressing the ‘red line’ under the pretext of an exercise: warning on the Blue Homeland to Athens and Nicosia”.

In its introductory note the newspaper writes that Greece, together with three other countries, issued a “pirate NAVTEX”, and that the survey plans of the Republic of Cyprus, which it calls the “Greek Cypriot administration”, are a provocation. The message it attributes to Ankara is “we will not allow faits accomplis”.

What the article says

According to the report, Athens issued on October 15 a NAVTEX for a multinational exercise south of Kastellorizo, with the participation of Greece, Cyprus, France and Italy: EUNOMIA. Turkey replied on October 16 with its own NAVTEX, disputing Greece’s competence to issue the notice. This is the counter-NAVTEX from the Antalya station that was issued for the area of the exercise.

The newspaper adds that Nicosia announced by NAVTEX geophysical surveys from October 21 to November 2 west of the island, as part of the East to Med Corridor data cable, and that Ankara replied that the area lies on the “Turkish continental shelf”. These are the surveys of the research vessel KOBI RUEGG for the East to Med Corridor, for which a Cypriot NAVTEX had been issued.

The Turkish analyst and the “diplomatic sources”

The article quotes the defence analyst Turan Oğuz, who says that “you can hold an exercise in international waters”, but that surveys on the seabed of an area where Turkey claims a continental shelf are “another matter”. According to him, the Turkish Armed Forces will monitor developments with surface, air and submarine units and will take “measures against an act they consider illegal”.

Oğuz adds that if warships of four navies cover a survey vessel, it “ceases to be an ordinary naval activity” and amounts “in practice to military protection”.

The newspaper closes with unnamed “diplomatic sources”, who describe as untrue the Greek reports linking the Turkish response to the exercise or to the cable work, and repeat that Turkey is “determined to protect under any circumstances” the rights that, it says, international law gives it.

The text presents neither the Greek nor the Cypriot position, nor the legal basis for the competence of the Heraklion station, and it gives no NAVTEX numbers or coordinates.

The next NAVTEX and the cable

The article comes as Athens is expected to issue a new NAVTEX for the seabed surveys of the Greece–Cyprus electric cable (GSI), with the Turkish Cypriot newspaper Bugün Kıbrıs writing that October 23 is a “critical date”. Ankara maintains that part of the route passes through areas it regards as its own continental shelf, a position that Greece and Cyprus reject.

In the same week US Senator Rick Scott, speaking from Cyprus, accused Turkey of not behaving as a NATO ally towards Greece and Cyprus.