Turkish President teases Athens, says drilling in Eastern Mediterranean resumed

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made teasing remarks at the Greek administration as he spoke at a mass opening ceremony of hydroelectric power plants on Thursday.

Boasting with the achievements in energy generation in the past 20 years under his administrations, Erdogan said, "You will see how the mood will change in the entire region once we start extracting natural gas."

Noting that the drilling ship Abdulhamid Han recently set off from Mersin's Tasucu Port for its first mission, he went on to say:

"I have heard that Greece got uneasy and asked, 'What is Erdogan doing.' Erdogan is doing nothing unusual, he is only doing his duty. This drilling ship is the first of its kind in the world. Once in the past, we were unable to even provide the funds to rent a drilling ship, but now we have four drilling and two seismic survey vessels. Now we're strong."

Turkey's new drilling ship Abdulhamid Han was launched on Tuesday to head for an area 55 km off the Turkish coast, outside waters also claimed by the Republic of Cyprus.

The operation signifies Turkey's resumption of drilling activities in eastern Mediterranean after a two-year interval. The Turkish drilling ship Yavuz was withdrawn from the region in September 2020.