Turkey’s dispatch of a second drillship to disputed waters off Cyprus has raised the specter of renewed tensions in the eastern Mediterranean. Yet Ankara finds itself increasingly isolated in the region's gas rivalry, facing a critical choice between military escalation or a diplomatic push to gain allies.
The Yavuz drilling ship, which Turkey’s state-owned petroleum company bought for $262 million in October, was launched to sea in a grand ceremony June 20 at Dilovasi, not far from Istanbul, after nearly two months of maintenance work and training for the crew.