Turkey clears French survey ship, but Athens says no permission was sought
Turkey issued a NAVTEX notice approving the work of the French vessel Abeille Marengo, which is surveying the seabed for a power cable linking Crete to Cyprus. Athens says Ankara was never asked for permission in the first place.
RastinewsTurkey has approved the operation of the French-flagged vessel Abeille Marengo, which is conducting seabed surveys in the Eastern Mediterranean for the Crete-Cyprus power cable. A notice issued by the Antalya NAVTEX Station on the night of November 10, numbered 1127/26, said the survey had been coordinated with Turkish authorities and that consent had been obtained.
The ship left Candia (Heraklion) port in Crete at 18:26 the same day. According to the Turkish notice, it can work at the designated coordinates until March 19, 2027.
Four days earlier, Turkey said no permission had been given
On November 6, Turkey's Foreign Ministry had said the ship was preparing to carry out an unauthorized survey on the continental shelf Turkey declared to the United Nations on March 18, 2020. The ministry said Greece and the Cyprus Greek administration had canceled the navigational notices they issued for the survey, and that the approval process had not been completed.
Ankara's position shifted after France sent a verbal note to Turkish authorities through its embassy in Ankara. A similar notification was reportedly also sent to Egypt.
Athens: Turkey was not asked for permission
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said survey permission had been obtained only from Greek and Cyprus Greek authorities. According to Mitsotakis, the French note was a general notification and did not amount to a request for permission.
Greek Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou said the French company running the project had made no application to Turkey at all, only to Athens and Nicosia.
The vessel is operated by Nexans, the French cable manufacturer contracted for the project. The Abeille Marengo will resume surveys southeast of Karpathos Island that were left unfinished in 2024.
The cable dispute began in 2024
The project, called the Great Sea Interconnector, aims to connect the Cyprus Greek administration to Europe's power grid via Crete at a cost of roughly 1.9 billion euros. The European Union lists it among its strategic energy projects.
Surveys off Kasos stopped in July 2024 after Turkish warships arrived in the area. Turkey has said part of the route crosses its own continental shelf under the maritime boundary agreement it signed with Libya in 2019. Greece and the European Union do not recognize that agreement.
According to the Athens-based National Herald, Greek coast guard and navy vessels are expected to be present in the area during the survey.