Recep Tayyip Erdogan made new provocative announcements a few days before the NATO Summit and his meeting with Kyriakos Mitsotakis, announcing that the Turkish drilling rig Yavuz will soon start drilling in the Mediterranean.
Speaking at a ceremony to discuss the discovery of new gas deposits in the Black Sea, the Turkish president said:
"We will make another move in the Mediterranean. Our ship Yavuz is located for maintenance in the port of Tasuzhou. "With God's help, he will soon return to his field to start drilling."
In fact, he stated that Turkey does not listen to what others say about its investigations.
"Now with our own ships we do seismic research as well as drilling. And when we do that we do not wonder "who will say what". "From now on, what we say matters," said the Turkish president, stressing that the decision now belongs to Turkey.
Earlier today, the Turkish Defense Minister had taken on new challenges towards our country, referring for the umpteenth time to Ankara's claims in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean.
In an interview with the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, Akar said "we see international law".
"What does Lausanne say?" That the islands can not be militarized. "But you can see that they have militarized them," he said, during a speech on the "Thalassolykos" exercise.
"We have no aspirations for anyone's lands, rights or interests. "But we are determined and able to protect the rights and interests in our seas and in our Blue Homeland as well as in Cyprus," he said.