A second Turkish drillship will begin drilling for oil and natural gas in the eastern Mediterranean within a week, Turkey's energy minister said on Saturday.
Turkey already has a ship off Cyprus and Cyprus issued arrest warrants for its crew in June.
The second drilling ship, Yavuz, is currently at the port of Mersin doing final tests and taking on supplies, Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez was quoted as saying by Turkish state news agency Anadolu.
Ankara, which does not have diplomatic relations with Cyprus, claims that certain areas in Cyprus's offshore maritime zone, known as an EEZ, fall under the jurisdiction of Turkey or of Turkish Cypriots, who have their own breakaway state in the north of the island which is recognised only by Turkey.
"God willing, within a week Yavuz will begin drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean, in Carpasia (peninsula), in the area where we have got a licence from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" said Dönmez.
