Turkey denies reports of missiles fired in Cypriot waters

Turkey’s presidential communications directorate on Saturday denied reports that missiles had been fired from a vessel in Cypriot waters, after a video appearing to show missile fire, which was reportedly taken in the Karpas peninsula village of Platanissos, was widely circulated on social media.

“No firing exercises have taken place in the territorial waters of Turkey or of the TRNC. It has been determined that the firings shown in the images in question occurred in international waters,” it said.

Territorial waters are typically measured as a distance of about 22 kilometres from the coast, and Platanissos is located around 100km south of the closest point to it in Turkey, allowing for a sliver of sea around 56km wide in which a firing activity could have taken place.

Turkey’s distancing of itself from the firing activities suggests that they may have been carried out by the United States, with a notice to airmen (Notam) regarding possible operations carried out by the US military off the coast of the Karpas peninsula having been issued earlier in the week.

Its issuing came amid heightened military activity in the eastern Mediterranean in recent weeks in light of the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, with it believed that the American aircraft carrier the USS George HW Bush is in the region.

Given the contested nature of Cyprus’ airspace and waters, the issuing of the initial Notam produced a flurry of Notams and counter-Notams in the following days, with the Turkish Cypriot authorities issuing a Notam of their own and Turkey declaring the original Notam “null and void” before issuing its own Notam for activities around Ercan (Tymbou) airport.

The conflict has seen the eastern Mediterranean in the field of fire, too, with Turkey’s defence ministry having disclosed that Nato air and missile assets located in the region have downed three ballistic missiles launched from Iran in recent weeks.

Earlier, intelligence and diplomatic sources in both Turkey and Cyprus had confirmed to the Cyprus Mail that the first missile intercepted in Turkish airspace, which was fired on March 4, had been aimed at the Incirlik airbase.

That airbase is jointly operated by the Turkish air force and that of the United States, and is located in Turkey’s southeastern Adana province.

In addition to US machinery, an array of Nato military assets has amassed in the eastern Mediterranean since the outbreak of the conflict in the Middle East at the beginning of the month

Greece, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Turkey, and the United Kingdom have all deployed naval or aerial assets to the island and its vicinity in recent weeks after it was hit by an Iranian-made drone.

This mass deployment of assets prompted Turkish Cypriot leader Tufan Erhurman to quip on Thursday that there is “barely any space left in the sea” off Cyprus.