Turkey’s Oruc Reis research vessel returns to near southern port: Ship tracker shows

Turkish seismic research vessel Oruc Reis, which has been at the heart of a simmering standoff between Greece and Turkey over gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean, has returned to a port in southern Turkey, a ship tracker shows.

On Sunday, Refinitiv ship tracking data showed that the Turkish government has returned Oruc Reis, along with two accompanying vessels, to waters near the southern province of Antalya, a move that was hailed by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis as a first positive step taken to defuse the growing tension.

“The return of Oruc Reis is a positive first step. I hope there will be continuity. We want to talk with Turkey but in a climate without provocations,” Mitsotakis said in a press conference in Thessaloniki, a Greek port city on the Thermaic Gulf of the Aegean Sea.

“The first step (by Turkey) will be the prologue of an improving situation in our bilateral relations,” he added.

Turkey and Greece, both of them NATO members, have been at loggerheads over hydrocarbon resources and naval influence in the eastern Mediterranean. For the past month, Ankara has sailed Oruc Reis — and warships to escort it — through an area in the sea that is disputed by Athens to map out possible oil and gas drilling prospects.

According to an advisory issued by the Turkish navy earlier this month, the research vessel was scheduled to end its explorations in the area on Saturday.

However, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu had earlier said that Oruc Reis would continue its exploratory operations for longer than the set period but no extension to the ship’s mission has so far been announced.

SS