Greece and Turkey have issued competing maritime notices over planned geophysical surveys for an undersea telecommunications cable in the Eastern Mediterranean, with Athens rejecting Ankara’s claim of jurisdiction over waters south of the Greek islands.
The dispute centers on the East to Med Data Corridor (EMC), a planned fiber-optic cable linking Saudi Arabia to Europe through Cyprus and Greece. The Bahamas-flagged survey vessel Kobi Ruegg is scheduled to conduct geophysical surveys ahead of the cable’s installation.
The latest exchange followed a Turkish navigational warning, known as NAVTEX, asserting jurisdiction over the planned surveys, days after Ankara challenged a separate notice issued by Cyprus.
Greece responded with a counter-NAVTEX rejecting the Turkish notice and subsequently issued its own navigational warning setting out the schedule and coordinates for the vessel’s operations.
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Greece Rejects Turkish Maritime Claims
In NAVTEX 1337/26, issued through the Heraklion station in Crete, the Hellenic Navy’s Hydrographic Service declared Turkey’s notice, FA41-1032/26, invalid.
The Greek notice states that the vast majority of the coordinates specified in the Turkish warning fall within the Greek continental shelf, as defined by international law and Greek Law 4001/2011.
Athens also maintains that the survey routes lie within the area covered by Greece’s NAVTEX service, where the Heraklion station has exclusive authority to issue navigational warnings.
The Greek notice states that the planned surveys in areas Athens considers part of its continental shelf must comply with the terms of Greek permit No. 2461, dated Oct. 2.
The Heraklion station called for the immediate cancellation of the Turkish notice, describing it as invalid and ineffective.
Turkey, however, maintains that the survey area falls within its continental shelf, citing outer limits that Ankara unilaterally submitted to the United Nations on March 18, 2020.
In its latest notice, Turkish authorities said they had coordinated and authorized the geophysical surveys by the Kobi Ruegg, scheduled to begin Oct. 21 and continue until further notice.
New Greek NAVTEX Sets Survey Schedule
Following the exchange, Greece issued NAVTEX 1343/26 through the Heraklion station at the request of the company chartering the survey vessel. The notice covers a broad stretch of the Eastern Mediterranean, extending from southeast of Crete and south of the islands of Kasos, Karpathos and Rhodes toward waters west and southwest of Cyprus.
According to the Greek announcement, the surveys will take place in two stages:
- Oct. 23-25: Operations along a route beginning in waters southeast of Crete.
- Oct. 27-30: Surveys along a second, more southerly route extending from west of Cyprus toward southeast of Crete.
The notice specifies the coordinates and planned timetable for the surveys, which are intended to precede installation of the EMC telecommunications cable.
The project is separate from the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI), the planned electricity connection between Greece and Cyprus that has also been the subject of disputes with Turkey.
Dispute Began With Cypriot NAVTEX
The latest Greek-Turkish exchange follows an earlier disagreement involving Cyprus. On Oct. 15, the Cypriot maritime station in Larnaca issued a NAVTEX covering planned surveys within the Republic of Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone, an area where Turkey asserts competing maritime claims.
The Cypriot notice covered operations scheduled from Oct. 21 to Nov. 2, along two designated routes, each within a corridor 10 nautical miles wide. Turkey responded on Oct. 16 with a counter-NAVTEX challenging the Cypriot notice and asserting that the waters in question fell within Ankara’s claimed continental shelf. Turkish authorities also disputed the Larnaca station’s authority to issue the warning, maintaining that responsibility for the area rested with Turkey’s Antalya station.