Turkey Confirms its Intention to Stop Other Countries' Drilling Operations in the Eastern Mediterranean

"No one can carry out these types of activities on our continental shelf without our permission," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said in a press statement on Wednesday.

Çavuşoğlu stressed that his country would prevent excavations in the eastern Mediterranean if any other country did so, and he also expressed his country's readiness to sit with Greece to resolve the dispute.

He said: "We do not want tensions, but rather we want an approach that can guarantee the rights of both sides under international law."

Tension has been mounting over the eastern border countries of the eastern Mediterranean region since large quantities of gas were discovered there.

A maritime agreement signed last month between Turkey and Libya angered other border countries, demanding rights in large areas of the eastern Mediterranean, such as Greece and its regional partners.