Turkish frigate sets sail to join international Somali piracy mission

TGC Giresun, with  two helicopters and 263 men on board, is expected to arrive in the region in "four or five days" and begin its duty on Feb. 25, its commanding officer Cenk Dalkanat was quoted by news agencies as saying at the Aksaz navy base on the Mediterranean coast.

It will serve for four months in the new counter-piracy multinational task force, CTF 151, operating in and around the Gulf of Aden, Arabian Sea, Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, before being replaced by another frigate.

The Turkish parliament last week gave the government a one-year authorization to send ships to the Gulf of Aden to combat rampant piracy in the region.

A Turkish frigate had earlier served in the region under NATO, but its mission expired and the country had pledged to contribute further to the anti-piracy efforts.

Three Turkish vessels were hijacked in the Gulf of Aden in 2008, with the last of them being released on Feb. 2. 

A Saudi navy frigate on Monday responded to distress call from a Turkish cargo ship that three small boats attempted to hijack it in the international waters near the Gulf of Aden.

Piracy is rife and well organized in the area where Somalia’s northeastern tip juts into the Indian Ocean, preying on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal. More than 130 ships were attacked in the area in 2008 alone.

The heavily armed pirates operate high-powered speedboats and sometimes hold ships for weeks before releasing them for large ransoms paid by governments or shipowners.