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Bulgaria has requested official clarification from Türkiye regarding the towing and subsequent grounding of the foreign-flagged tanker Kairos near the Black Sea town of Ahtopol, the Bulgarian Ministry of Transport and Communications announced on Monday.
The request follows a meeting between Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications Grozdan Karadjov, Minister of Foreign Affairs Georg Georgiev, and Turkish Ambassador Mehmet Sait Uyanik.
During the talks, Ambassador Uyanik stated that the operation involving the tanker had been carried out by a private Turkish company without prior notification to the Turkish state.
He added that Turkish authorities had launched an internal investigation and would provide full information to Bulgaria as soon as possible.
Minister Karadjov presented data on the movement of the Turkish tugboat Timur Bey, which entered Bulgarian territorial waters before towing the tanker to a position approximately six nautical miles from the coast.
According to the ministry, the recorded trajectory indicates purposeful navigation toward Bulgarian waters.
Bulgarian authorities have formally asked Türkiye to determine who ordered the towing operation, what its objective was, and why the tugboat transported the tanker specifically into Bulgaria’s area of responsibility.
Following Bulgaria’s request, the maritime authorities sent an official inquiry to the Coordination Center in Ankara, which responded that the tugboat had returned to the port of Igneada after “a completed task.”
The tanker Kairos, which ran aground last Friday, remains anchored off Ahtopol. The Regional Crisis Headquarters for Disasters and Accidents in Burgas reported that no environmental damage has been detected at this stage.
Evacuation operations have continued over recent days. Four crew members were airlifted yesterday, and three others were evacuated on Dec. 7 and are currently accommodated in Varna.
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