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Eastern Mediterranean Crisis Balloons as Turkish Drill Ships Multiply
(Al Monitor) Amberin Zaman - Amid sharpening tensions over drilling rights in the Eastern Mediterranean, Turkey dispatched a second drill ship, the Yavuz, which arrived Monday off the northernmost tip of Cyprus. The area was "licensed" by the Turkish Cypriots to the state-owned Turkish Petroleum company. The move prompted a rebuke from the Cypriot presidency which called the move "an escalation by Turkey of its repeated violations of Cyprus' sovereign rights based on the UN Law of the Sea." EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs Federica Mogherini warned that the EU would respond "in full solidarity with Cyprus." Russia called for "restraint" and respect for Cyprus' sovereignty. America's ExxonMobil and Noble Energy, France's Total and Italy's Eni are among a slew of companies drilling in blocks licensed to them by the Republic of Cyprus that are caught in the middle as Turkey continues to wade in with its own drilling vessels, shored up by military escorts and bellicose rhetoric.