Yavuz to start new round of offshore operations south of Cyprus on October 7, diplomat says

Turkish drill ship Yavuz will start a new round of offshore drilling operations in the eastern Mediterranean, south of Cyprus, on October 7, a Turkish diplomat said on Friday, after Cyprus condemned Turkey’s move to send its ship to the region.

Earlier, Cyprus said Turkey’s action in sending the Yavuz to an area Nicosia as licensed for offshore hydrocarbon exploration was a “severe escalation” of what it called Ankara’s violations of the island’s sovereign rights.

Cagatay Erciyes, head of the foreign ministry’s department looking into the eastern Mediterranean, said on Twitter that the area where Yavuz would launch drilling operations was within Turkey’s continental shelf. [Reuters]