Greece Rejects Turkish Permission Demand as Cyprus-Crete Power Cable Surveys Near Restart

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Greece is refusing to seek Turkish permission for seabed surveys linked to the Great Sea Interconnector, as Ankara again warns it will block activity in waters it claims as part of its continental shelf.

The dispute has placed the Cyprus-Crete electricity link at the centre of another major confrontation between Athens and Ankara in the eastern Mediterranean.

The company behind the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI) is completing preparations to resume the outstanding seabed surveys, with discussions underway with the Greek government over the timing of a formal request for a survey vessel and the issuance of a NAVTEX.

Athens has made clear that the project will proceed.

Around 60 per cent of the required surveys have already been completed, according to Greece’s power grid operator Admie. The remaining section is in waters where Greece and Turkey maintain competing maritime claims.

Greek Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis has described any attempt to obstruct the project as “inconceivable”, pointing to the cable’s status as a European project of common interest and its €657 million European Commission grant.

Source: Memos, Constantine & Roupas, Ioannis & Mylonas, Antonios. (2025). Methodological Overview of Hydrodynamic Loading on Seabed Structures in the South-East Mediterranean. Journal of Marine Science and Engineering. 13. 2057. 10.3390/jmse13112057.