Turkey continues to up its aggression against Greece and Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean, as it issued a NAVTEX blocking half of the Gulf of Antalya on the heels of statements by the country’s Energy Minister Fatih Donmez about the sailing of the seismic research ship Oruc Reis.

According to reports, the Turkish research vessel has been upgraded since the range of its cables has almost doubled from almost 2.5 kilometres to 4 kilometres.

According to the correspondent of SKAI TV, Donmez stated that “the Oruc Reis in front of which we are standing had carried out operations for a long time in the eastern Mediterranean. We brought it to port as needed to do some equipment and software modernisation work.”

As he explained, “now this too (Oruc Reis) is being converted to be able to do three-dimensional seismic surveys, as we have also done with the research vessel Barbaros Hairetin Pasha, and its assembly continues”.

Finally, Fatih Donmez announced, without giving further details, that “within this month we will complete the modernisation work and send the Oruc Reis to its new duty station.”