Neighbors stick to guns in escalating energy row

ANKARA－Turkey on Thursday accused France of stoking tensions in the eastern Mediterranean, where NATO allies Turkey and Greece are locked in a standoff over competing claims over offshore energy exploration rights.

The accusation came as European Union foreign ministers were set to meet in Berlin as they try to persuade European Union-member Greece and its neighbor Turkey to pull back from the brink of a conflict. The ministers were expected to debate a range of sanctions and other policy options that might convince Turkey to temper its insistence on drilling for energy reserves in disputed parts of the eastern Mediterranean.

Germany has engaged in shuttle diplomacy to defuse the tensions while US President Donald Trump on Wednesday had separate telephone calls with the leaders of both Greece and Turkey.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg also said he was in "constant contact" with Greece and Turkey.

"My message is that the situation must be resolved in a spirit of allied solidarity and in line with international law," Stoltenberg said as he met German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. "Dialogue and de-escalation are in everybody's interest."

In Ankara, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar slammed France, which was set to join Italy, Greece and Cyprus in three-day air and sea military exercises off the east Mediterranean island and said Turkey would not be deterred by the show of force.

"To believe that it would be possible to thwart the Turkish Armed Forces operations with exercises and similar activities is nothing more than a pipe dream," Akar said.

Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hami Aksoy, meanwhile, accused France of deploying warplanes on the ethnically-divided island of Cyprus on the "pretext" of carrying out military exercises. The deployment was against treaties reached in 1960, he said.

"France, which is not a guarantor of the island of Cyprus, is with this attitude dangerously encouraging the Greek Cypriot and Greek duo, who are responsible for the current tensions in the Eastern Mediterranean, to escalate the tension further," Aksoy said in a statement.

France and Greece will deploy both warplanes and navy ships as part of the drills, while Cyprus will activate its air defense system to test its capabilities, Cyprus' Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday.

Separately, Turkey issued a notice, known as Navtex, declaring that it would hold live-fire military exercises over Sept 1-2 off its southern Mediterranean coast, opposite Cyprus.

The Turkish vessel Oruc Reis has for weeks been carrying out seismic research, escorted by Turkish warships. Athens, which says the ship is operating over Greece's continental shelf in an area where it has exclusive rights on potential undersea gas and oil deposits, sent warships to observe and track the Turkish flotilla.

Turkey and Greece have both vowed to defend their competing claims in the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed on Wednesday that his country will defend its right of hydrocarbon explorations in the eastern Mediterranean and make "no concessions".

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece is planning to exercise its legal right to extend its territorial waters along its western coastline, which faces Italy, from six to 12 nautical miles (11 to 22 kilometers).Turkey has warned in the past that an extension of Greek waters to 12 nautical miles in the Aegean Sea, facing the Turkish littoral, would be seen as a reason to declare a war on Greece.

Agencies - Xinhua