Erdogan: Somalia Invites us to Explore Oil in its Waters

NTV channel quoted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan saying that Somalia invited Turkey to explore oil in its waters after Ankara and the Al-wefaq government in Libya's Tripoli signed an agreement to demarcate maritime borders last year.

"There is an offer from Somalia. They say: There is oil in our waters, and you are carrying out these operations with Libya, and you can do them here too," the channel quoted Erdogan as saying.

"This is very important for us ... so there will be steps that we take in our operations there," he added.

Erdogan and the leader of Al-wefaq government Fayez Al-Sarraj had signed a MOU on maritime borders which was widely denounced by international  community as it violates the rights of other countries, and was seen as a Turkish response for the EU sanctions prepared for Ankara which illegally makes gas explorations near Cyprus.

Erdogan has sparked the international denouncement too by his moves in Libya, where he has reportedly sent military advisors and contracted with thousands of Syrian fighters to go to Libya to fight against the Libyan National Army which has launched a military operation to liberate Tripoli from the militias fighting with Al-Sarraj.

Erdogan earlier said: “In light of this new agreement between Turkey and Libya, we can carry out exploration operations in those exclusive economic zones that we have identified. The rest of the countries cannot carry out exploration operations in these areas without permission from Ankara.”

He pointed out that Turkey will buy another drilling ship and will continue operations in Black sea and other international waters.