Ankara’s ‘Blue Motherland’ exercise seen as warning to Cyprus, Greece

Ankara is launching on 27 February with a military exercise named "Blue Motherland" (Mavi Vatan) which has been described by Turkish media as a "war rehearsal" and which aims to send a clear message to Greece, Cyprus, Israel, and whoever else disputes Ankara's declared interests in the Eastern Mediterranean.

The manoeuvres have been touted as Turkey's biggest ever, covering a terrain including the Aegean, the Mediterranean, and the Black Sea. They will run to 8 March.

Ankara will send frigates and corvettes to the Aegean and the Mediterranean, where Turkey wants to take a stand against Cyprus' hydrocarbons exploration programme in its own Exclusive Economic Zone.

Meanwhile Turkey is about to start its own illegal drilling in the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus.

With Ankara internationally isolated and with its ties with the US having reached rock bottom - after Washington froze the delivery to Turkey of F-35 warplanes due to Ankara's insistence on procuring Russia's S-400 missile system - Turkey has resorted to the tried and tested tactic of flexing military muscle.

For the sea, air, and land manouevres Ankara has issued a NAVTEX tying up areas of the Southeastern Aegean and the Southeastern Mediterranean, including the continental shelf of the Greek island of Kastelorizo, the area southeast of Rhodes, and the EEZ of the Republic of Cyprus.

Turkey has tied up a total area of 462,000-square metres in the Aegean, Mediterranean and Black Seas for the expansive exercises.

Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency touted the exercises as a huge "show of force" because aside from over 100 ships, also participating will be SAT and SAS commando units, land forces and the Turkish Coast Guard.

The Turkish daily Yeni Safak reported...