Turkey says conducted drills with US in eastern Mediterranean

Turkey says it has conducted military drills with a US Navy destroyer in the eastern Mediterranean, amid a dispute with Greece over maritime boundaries and offshore energy rights.

“Turkish frigates TCG Barbaros and TCG Burgazada have conducted maritime training with American destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill in the eastern Mediterranean on 26 August,” the Turkish Defense Ministry said in a tweet on Wednesday.

The ministry also released photos of two Turkish warships and another battleship flying the Turkish and US flags, but it neither gave further details nor specified where the exercises took place.

Turkey’s rival Greece launched three days of military exercises with France, Italy and Cyprus in an area south of the Mediterranean island Crete.

NATO allies Greece and Turkey are at odds over a range of issues, including sea boundaries. Tensions have spiked between the two since Ankara resumed energy exploration work in a disputed area of the eastern Mediterranean on August 10.

Earlier on Wednesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said his country would not give up “what it deserves” in the Mediterranean Sea, warning Greece against making mistakes that would pave the way to its “ruin.”

Greece and Turkey almost went to war in 1974 over Cyprus, which has since been divided, with the northern third run by a Turkish Cypriot administration recognized only by Turkey and the southern two-thirds governed by the internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot government.

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