Turkish navy monitors Italian cable-laying in Cyprus' EEZ

By Vassilis Nedos

The Turkish Navy is keeping a close eye on the work of the Italian vessel Teliri, which is to lay telecommunication cables within Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ) that will stretch to Greece and then to Italy. The vessel, which is expected to sail into a potential Greek EEZ in July, is sailing southwest of Cyprus under discreet surveillance by the Turkish Navy corvette Bartin.

Turkey considers that most of the area reserved by the Republic of Cyprus for the Italian ship’s operations is sitting on the Turkish continental shelf, therefore whenever there is any activity in the area, it sends a vessel to back its claim.

A few days ago Ankara also reacted to the relevant navigational notice (Navtex) issued by the Cypriot authorities.

Turkey is consistent in its reaction to any activity in the maritime space between the Dodecanese in the southeastern Aegean and Cyprus, where the EEZs of Greece, Cyprus and Turkey overlap.

Turkey’s view on the extent of its EEZ led to the crises of 2018 (with the frigate Nikiforos Fokas) and 2020, with the fleets of Greece and Turkey deployed for months.

The practice is not new. The Republic of Cyprus is, as pointed out, used to similar situations – especially when the energy program was being developed in the blocks south, west and east of the island nation.

Tellingly, in 2018 the Turkish Navy had prevented the start of work by an Italian ENI drilling rig in Block 3, in the area where the Cypriot EEZ meets that of Lebanon.

It is worth noting that Hezbollah, which recently threatened Nicosia against helping Israel in its war efforts, had openly expressed its disagreement with the possibility of finalizing an EEZ delimitation agreement between the Republic of Cyprus and Lebanon, which is seen as an another indication of Ankara’s influence over the Islamist group that controls southern Lebanon.