Turkey challenges Greece’s Cyprus cable permit

On 6 November, Greece authorized seabed surveys for the Great Sea Interconnector, the submarine cable meant to connect Cyprus to the continental European electricity grid (Greek MFA, Reuters). Turkey answered the same day in writing: part of the route crosses a continental shelf it declared to the UN in 2020, and surveying there needs its consent, which it has not given (Turkish notice register, Turkish Foreign Ministry). By early Saturday, the survey ship Abeille Marengo's last recorded position put it stationary in the port of Heraklion, on Crete (MyShipTracking).

A permit and a counterclaim

Both governments announced their positions through NAVTEX alerts, the radio warnings broadcast to shipping in a given area. Greece's Heraklion station asked vessels to keep clear of a survey line running from Crete toward Cyprus (Greek Hydrographic Service). Turkey's Antalya station replied that part of that line crosses the continental shelf Ankara declared to the UN in 2020, a seabed zone beyond territorial waters where a state claims exclusive rights (Turkish notice register). The Foreign Ministry called the work marine research at sea and said its consent was never given (Turkish Foreign Ministry).

A NAVTEX is a safety warning, not a permit and not a boundary ruling. The actual authorization came from Athens earlier the same day, when Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis signed the permit that French cable contractor Nexans had asked for (Greek MFA, Reuters).

Ankara says the survey cannot happen without its approval. Athens has issued the approval without asking for it. Neither capital accepts the other's premise about whose map governs the stretch between Crete and Cyprus.

Cyprus pays most if the route stays disputed

Cyprus is the only EU member state still cut off from the continent's grid, and the roughly 898-kilometre cable is the agreed fix, with about €657 million in EU money behind it (Commission, CINEA). Europe's money can build the cable; it cannot decide who may map the route. The cost of that unresolved question lands unevenly, and Cyprus carries the heavier end.

According to Cyprus Mail, Cyprus bears 63% of the Crete-Cyprus construction cost against Greece's 37%, on a €1.9 billion estimate expected to rise, with roughly 40% of the seabed surveying still unfinished (Cyprus Mail). Unsurveyed seabed leaves both the final route and the final price open.

This is not the first attempt. In July 2024, Greek and Turkish warships held a standoff for roughly 40 hours near the island of Kasos (eKathimerini). The operator says it finished that assigned segment, still leaving the rest of the way toward Cyprus unmapped (ADMIE). Abeille Marengo reached Crete in late October to resume the paused work (OT, To Brief).

Turkey's refusal is also selective. It consented to survey work for a separate telecommunications cable in nearby waters, Cyprus Mail reported (Cyprus Mail). For the electricity cable, consent has not come. The difference points to the project's politics, not to seabed research itself.

The last AIS signal (the automatic identification broadcast ships emit) placed Abeille Marengo at speed zero in Heraklion port at 00:20 UTC on 7 November; no later departure had been logged by Saturday morning (MyShipTracking). Satellite tracking leaves gaps, so the broadcasts cannot prove the survey will stay stalled. They do record where the dispute stands: Ankara is asserting a consent right over a route Greece has authorized, while the notices settle neither the boundary nor whether any work began in the contested area.