Akıncı warns south Cyprus on natural gas

President of the Turkish Republic of North Cyprus, Mustafa Akıncı has warned the Greek Cypriot side the natural gas around the divided island is a common wealth that belongs to both side of the island.

Evaluating the recent developments regarding the Greek Cypriot side’s unilateral natural gas activities in the Eastern Mediterranean during a program he attended on CNN Türk, Akinci said that the main reason of the conflict experienced in the Eastern Mediterranean was the Greek Cypriot side’s desire to claim the natural gas and oil reserves alone by considering everything in its scope of authority.

Akıncı said the Greek Cypriot side which claimed the Republic of Cyprus alone by excluding the Turkish Cypriots now tried to claim the natural resources in the Eastern Mediterranean alone by extending its sovereignty zone.

He stressed that the Greek Cypriot side should leave the non-solution policy and contribute to a just and permanent solution in order to remove current tensions and according to him, if the Greek Cypriot side was not ready for a solution today, then it should find a way for agreeing with Turkish Cypriots on the natural gas issue through interim formulas.77

Otherwise, just as they see themselves authorized and conducting researches in these areas the Turkish Cypriots will also hold the same activities in cooperation with Turkey. We will of course start these research activities in cooperation with Turkey and with the new drill ship of Turkey because this richness is a common richness. It does not only belong to the Greek Cypriots. Akıncı said.

He also reminded that the Turkish Cypriot side had continuously warned the Greek Cypriot side throughout the negotiations process and proposed the establishment of a common committee on this issue.

He stated that they proposed to search for the natural richness together and to turn the region to a cooperation area than a tension area, the President said “however, the Greek Cypriot side in response said that the issue is not related with the negotiations, it is within their scope of authority and therefore they would not discuss this with the Turkish Cypriots.”

Stating that the Greek Cypriot side by taking the advantage of the tensed relations between Turkey and some other countries in the region tried to benefit from this with Greece, Akıncı said another aim was to expose Turkey with big powers adding that this was obvious from the companies selected.

Noting the EU was providing financial support to the Greek Cypriot side, the President said “East-Med natural gas pipeline project is being discussed. East-Med is a project which aims to transfer the natural gas to be found in Eastern Mediterranean to Europe via Greece by bypassing Turkey. EU has allocated millions of Euros for the feasibility of this project.”

Instead, a project which would create an opportunity for the establishment of cooperation bridges between the Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriots, regional countries, between Cyprus and Turkey in the future and Turkey and Greece would be at stake. Akıncı said.

A route via Turkey is the shortest, more practical, faster and cheaper. However, unfortunately the Greek Cypriots did not prefer the path of mind and path of cooperation and went into the effort of creating tension scenarios he added.

BRTK