The Arleigh Burke class US Navy destroyer DDG-61 USS Ramage arrived today in Marmaris, Muğla for a three day port visit. The local police and administrative authoritaties took extra security measure so the US sailors on shore are not harassed like during the last port visit, when USS Ramage was in Bodrum, Muğla. During the previous port visit a small group of protesters belonging... Continue Reading →
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 →
The Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced yesterday that the Turkish frigate F-244 TCG Barbaros was dispatched to the site of the collision to help searching for the survivors. She is expected to arrive at the scene in the early morning hours on 21st October 2011. I am afraid that this might be too late... Continue Reading →
The Turkish flagged motor ferry Ankara collided with a Turkish owned and Maltese flagged merchant ship M/V Reina 1 last night off the coast of Albania. The M/V Reina 1 was heavily damaged and sunk as the result of the collision. M/F Ankara was used extensively during the evacuation of Turkish citizens from the Libya as this... Continue Reading →
Last weeks events especially the death of Mr. Jobs, turned the attention of the public's focus away from the Eastern Mediterranean. The number of articles published, the war mongering and empty threads diminished with the public general interest. May be it is good so. Now is the era of back office diplomacy. It is time... Continue Reading →
Russia's sole remaining Kashin class (Project 61M) large ASW destroyer Smetlivyy is preparing for a deployment to the Mediterranean. The Black Sea Fleet ship, based in Sevastopol will sail to Italy to take part in the annual joint Russian-Italian naval exercise IONIEX 2011. According to the web site rusnavy.com, recently, all ship's systems were tested in different modes at... Continue Reading →
Spain agreed to host the ships US Navy is deploying to Mediterranean for NATO’s missile defense system. “Today the [NATO] security partnership takes a major step in the right direction,” Panetta told reports at the briefing. “With four Aegis ships at Rota,” he added, “the alliance is significantly boosting combined naval capabilities in the Mediterranean... Continue Reading →
While Eastern Mediterranean continues to be hotspot new players are trying to enter the game. One of them is France. According to Greek Daily Kathimerini: French energy companies 'Total’ and ‘Gaze de France’ bought three-dimensional seismic data for gas deposits in Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The cost of seismic data was over the 2... Continue Reading →
SACEUR, Adm. Stavridis arrived in Ankara today. He had meetings with General Özel, Cheif of Staff of Turkish Armed Forces, with Mr. Yılmaz, MoD Turkey, and Turkish MoFA delegates. He was in Israel yesterday and the day before attending some meetings too. When the most senior commander within NATO visits two countries that have a... Continue Reading →
While thew worlds attention is turned to the recent meetings and debates in the UN in New York, the high tension situation continues in the Eastern Med. The harsh rhetoric of last week turned into concrete actions. Turkey signed an oil and gas exploration agreement with Northern Cyprus the Turkish Cypriot part of the island.... Continue Reading →
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