Shunning Post-Earthquake Solidarity, Turkey Enrages Greece in Mediterranean

Turkey on Sunday announced it was extending its controversial naval survey for gas deposits in the Eastern Mediterranean, triggering an expected angry response from neighboring Greece and other European countries. The research mission, the second such Turkish effort since August, has been extended several times and is now promising to return to Turkish shores on November 14. To many European diplomats’ chagrin, the rare overtures of solidarity and friendship displayed over the weekend by both countries, after they were hit by a deadly earthquake, proved to be a short-lived hiatus from the ongoing bickering. Athens’ Foreign Ministry said the latest move by Ankara “only increases tensions in a vulnerable region where attention is currently focused on aid and support.” The dispute over territorial waters and the countries’ continental shelves has flared up in recent months, leading to dangerously tense military drills and naval maneuvers by both sides.