Turkey withdraws contentious research ship to port ahead of EU summit
Turkey has introduced it has referred to as a analysis ship on the centre of a drilling row with Greece again to port forward of a summit of EU leaders subsequent week.
The nation”s Power and Pure Sources Ministry mentioned on Monday morning that the Oruç Reis vessel had “accomplished the two-dimensional seismic analysis” it was conducting off Demre, a city on the southern Turkish coast.
The ship had began work on August 10 and has now returned to port in Antalya, the ministry added.
It comes lower than a fortnight earlier than European leaders meet for an EU Council summit on December 11.
The Oruç Reis has been on the centre of a dispute with Turkey’s neighbour Greece over undersea drilling rights within the jap Mediterranean.
The 2 international locations and Cyprus have overlapping claims of sovereignty over waters within the area.
There may be rising EU disquiet at its disputes with Turkey on points together with migrants from Syria and Afghanistan, the Libyan civil struggle, and sea exploration rights within the Jap Mediterranean.
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s tone in direction of the EU has additionally change into more and more belligerent as he steered his nation in direction of army agreements with Russia.
A number of member states, together with Greece, France and Austria, are pushing for sanctions together with an arms embargo, though these are understood to be opposed by Germany, Italy and Spain.
However in current weeks Erdoğan has adopted a more conciliatory tone, telling a gathering of his governing AK Social gathering on November 21: “We see ourselves in Europe, not in a distinct place. We foresee constructing our future with the EU.”
Turkey started accession talks in 2005, practically 20 years after it formally utilized for membership in 1987.
However a number of chapters within the negotiations have since been frozen due to a dispute over the divided island of Cyprus.
There was little or no progress during the last six years.
Some European politicians, together with many within the European Parliament, consider the membership talks needs to be formally suspended or cancelled altogether.
