Türkiye's vice president says his country is stepping up a search for hydrocarbons off ethnically divided Cyprus with the dispatching of a survey vessel to join two drillships and another research craft operating in waters around the east Mediterranean island nation.
Fuat Oktay says Türkiye will "never submit" to sanctions imposed by the European Union over its drilling and won't hesitate to take additional steps in defense of its rights and those of breakaway Turkish Cypriots to the area's energy reserves.