M/V Kartepe, a high speed passenger vessel belonging to the municipality of Izmit was hijacked by 4 or 5 terrorist this evening as the vessel was on her routine voyage from Izmit to Karamursel. According to news reports there are 19 passengers, 6 crew. The terrorist overwhelmed the crew and entered into the bridge by... Continue Reading →
Notice To Mariners
There will be light posting or no blogging until further notice.
SNMCMG-2 Is In Patras For An Exercise With Greek Navy
Tomorrow NATO's SNMCMG-2 will start a 3 day visit in Patras, Greece. SNMCMG-2 is currently led by Captain Abdulhamit Şener of Turkish Navy. Last month the task force made a visit to Spit, Croatia. Following their departure from Split, the ships of SNMCMG-2, led by the flagship A-579 TCG Cezayirli Gazi Hasanpaşa, conducted underway exercises with... Continue Reading →
Bulgaria Decommissions Her Last Submarine
Yesterday, just as expected and reported, the last submarine was decommissioned from Bulgarian Navy. The decommissioning of Romeo (Project 633) class BNS Slava means the termination of Bulgaria’s submarine force after 94 years. The Romeo class, derived from the German Type XXI submarine, by Soviet Union in 1950. BNS Slava was given to Bulgarian Navy in 1986. She is well beyond her useful... Continue Reading →
The Korkut Replaces Kangal As The Turkish Concept Against Piracy
Last year I have reported about a concept developed by two Turkish companies for anti-piracy operations: Kangal. Named aptly after the famous shepherd dog of Anatolia, this concept involved small fast and sufficiently armed patrol boats zooming around the merchant ship convoys and protecting therm against the pirates as a shepherd dog would protect its... Continue Reading →
BAE Systems, Global Combat Ship And Turkey (Part 1)
In November Turkish President Abdullah Gül will visit United Kingdom. This visit has two highlight particularly important from naval point of view: First during his visit he will visit the BAE System's shipyard in Portsmouth. Second an agreement (probably a Letter of Agreement) about joint defense R&D with UK will be signed. A similar agreement... Continue Reading →
Republic Day 2011
Today is the 88th anniversary of the Turkish Republic. This years mood was somber because of the earthquake in Van last week.But despite the cancellation of official ceremonies the public went to the streets for celebrations parades. As it is customs several Turkish were open to the public. The below chart shows the ships that... Continue Reading →
Ten Years Of Operation Active Endeavour
In the wake of the 11th September 2001 terrorist attacks on WTC, NATO implemented Article 5 of the Washington Treaty. One of the actions taken in this regard was the starting of Operation Active Endeavour (OAE) in Eastern Mediterranean. The aim of OAE is to control the shipping through the Mediterranean basin by hailing ships or by boarding them so that the... Continue Reading →
You’re Never Beaten Until You Admit It
"You're never beaten until you admit it." a beautiful and very true quote from General Patton. Just when South Korea seemed to have won the bid for producing submarines for Indonesia, Turkish officials deny being defeated. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago with more than 17,000 islands, lies across shipping lanes between the Indian and Pacific oceans as well as... Continue Reading →
The Situation In The Eastern Mediterranean (Part 5)
The Eastern Mediterranean is no longer in the spot light of the public opinion. More important and pressing events such as the death of Gaddafi in Libya, the earthquake in Van, Turkey left the guess for oil in the Eastern Mediterranean in the shadows. I think all actors of this quest are happy from this... Continue Reading →
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