ANKARA

Turkish Navy teams have carried out thousands of hours of sea voyages and flights to detect and safely dispose of drifting sea mines off the Black Sea coast, officials from the National Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.

So far, the teams have undertaken 6,747 hours of sea voyages and 1,496 hours of flights, the officials said.

Türkiye issued a NOTMAR (notice to mariners) on March 18 last year because of the threat of drifting sea mines due to the Russia-Ukraine war, the officials added.

In the Western Black Sea, mine surveillance activities kicked off in coordination with the Coast Guard Command and other institutions, including from the air with maritime patrol aircraft, helicopters, UAVs, and from the sea with minehunter ships and patrol ships.

While the Istanbul Strait was monitored with electro-optical surveillance systems, the Underwater Defense or SAS teams were put in a high readiness state to destroy mines in case of detection.

The surveillance activities were coordinated with the Romanian and Bulgarian Naval Operations Centers and the necessary information was shared with the parties. Officials of the National Defense Ministry also noted that the activities continue successfully, and that Türkiye was ready for all kinds of assistance if needed.

Turkish teams destroyed four mines

Since the beginning of the Ukraine-Russia war, Turkish teams have destroyed four mines. The first mine was detected at the entrance of the Istanbul Strait on March 26, 2022, the second was found on the northern coast of Igneada near the Bulgarian maritime border on March 28 of the same year, and the third was spotted off Türkiye's northwestern Kocaeli/Kefken coast on April 6, 2022.

Later on Oct. 18, 2022, another mine detected off the coast of Kiyikoy/Kirklareli was destroyed by the teams.

Also on Tuesday, the Bulgarian Defense Ministry said in a statement that they destroyed a mine detected in the Black Sea.