Turkish defence ministry: Sea mine found near Bulgarian border
A sea mine was found in waters off Iğneada, close to the Bulgarian border, in the early hours of March 28, Turkey’s Ministry of National Defence said in a message on Twitter.
Underwater defence teams in the region were swiftly deployed to the incident site, the ministry said.
The place where the sea mine was found is about 15km from Rezovo at the Bulgarian-Turkish border on Bulgaria’s southern Black Sea coast.
On March 26, Turkey closed the Bosphorus to clear a mine, later reported to be an old one.
Earlier in March, Russia claimed that sea mines laid by Ukraine at Odesa had come adrift and were floating in the Black Sea.
Bulgaria’s Navy commander said at the time that surveillance of the country’s territorial waters had been stepped up, though he said that the claims might be more a matter of complicating shipping and instilling fear and tension among sailors and coastal states rather than a real threat.
Turkish media reported the country’s Defence Minister Hulusi Akar as saying on March 26 that he had discussed the situation with representatives of Russia and Ukraine.
Turkish Navy personnel were on duty in the region and co-ordination between Ankara, Moscow and Kyiv on the issue was continuing, he said.
(Photo of Rezovo: Marcin Szala, via Wikimedia Commons)
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