Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has launched a new campaign of exploratory oil and gas drilling, stressing that it is being conducted off Turkey's coast and in its own waters.
The exploration is being done by a new drill ship, the Abduhamid Han, which left the southern port of Mersin on a two-month mission.
"The drilling is being done (in waters) under our jurisdiction," Erdogan said. "We do not need permission from anyone."
Various nations in the Eastern Mediterranean are involved in disputes over who has which rights and where.
Turkey is often at loggerheads with Greece and Cyprus over offshore mining operations
