Turkey is reported to have blocked the research vessel Fugro Gauss, sailing under the flag of Gibraltar, from conducting geophysical surveys on behalf of the Republic of Cyprus in a maritime area that Ankara considers part of its continental shelf, according to the newspaper Milliyet and other Turkish media outlets.
However, a government source in Nicosia denied any expulsion or diversion of the vessel, stressing that the company carrying out the surveys had lodged no complaint and that Cypriot authorities were in constant contact with the ship.
Turkey issued an anti-NAVTEX, rejecting the Cypriot NAVTEX as invalid, and deployed naval and air forces for the “monitoring and prevention of unauthorised activities.”
According to sources from the Turkish Ministry of Defence, the Fugro Gauss’s activities were in violation of Turkey’s continental shelf, as declared to the UN in March 2020. Ankara maintains that any activity, such as the laying of submarine cables or scientific research, requires its prior approval.
On 5 August, 2025, the Turkish Foreign Ministry and Defence Ministry issued warnings and an anti-NAVTEX regarding the vessel’s operations. The incident is linked to the “EMC” submarine fibre-optic cable project, which Turkey claims passes through its continental shelf.
Milliyet, adopting the rhetoric of the “Blue Homeland” doctrine, accused the Greek Cypriot administration of attempting to create faits accomplis in the Mediterranean, claiming that the Turkish Navy and a maritime patrol aircraft had warned the Fugro Gauss. The paper also noted that a similar attempt by Greece near Karpathos in July had also been thwarted.
Diplomatic sources cited by the Turkish newspaper stressed that the “EMC” project is different from the “Great Sea” Greece–Cyprus electricity interconnection, but both are subject to the same legal procedures. They claimed that the German company managing the project, the United Kingdom as the vessel’s flag state, and the crew had cooperated, while warning that Greek Cypriot attempts to establish faits accomplis would not succeed.
Milliyet recalled that in 2024, the “Blue Raman” fibre-optic cable project, which passed through Turkey’s continental shelf, was successfully completed with Ankara’s approval, while the “Great Sea” project linking Crete and Cyprus did not proceed due to Greece’s refusal to follow Turkish procedures.
