The Turkish Armed Forces defended itself against accusations from Greek Marine Conservation Institute Archipelagos that its naval exercises have been behind a recent spike in the number of dolphin deaths.
On Tuesday, the military posted on Twitter a video and photographs of dolphins happily accompanying vessels during naval exercises.
Extremely sensitive about the environment and innocent civilians at sea, land and air even during military operations the Turkish Armed Forces act with the consciousness of protecting our friends at sea during their duties in the Blue Homeland. pic.twitter.com/RBVxOpo9rF
— Millî Savunma Bakanlığı (@tcsavunma) April 9, 2019
Of course, the simpleminded footage posted by TSK does not prove anything. Neither that the happily swimming dolphins did not die right afterwards or that they were the same marine mammals washed up on the Aegean coast.
Over the weekend, Archipelagos said that 15 dead dolphins have washed up in the North Aegean Sea, seven of them alone on the coast of the island of Samos.
The Institute could not prove yet any link between the Turkish naval exercise “Blue Homeland” and the marine mammals’ death and is conducted autopsy and lab tests on the dead dolphins. However, Archipelagos expressed strong suspicion that the use of live ammunition and sonar frequencies have led to the animals’ death saying the spike came in the wake of the Turkish drill between February 27 and March 3, 2019.
