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Cyprus (10) -- News -- 2009
Cyprus Vows to Block EU-Turkey Energy Talks
1.11.2009
Cyprus will continue to hinder Turkey’s EU membership talks unless it stops its alleged harassment of the island in its search for offshore mineral deposits, Cyprus’ foreign minister said Monday.
Markos Kyprianou accused Ankara of behaving like a “neighborhood bully.”
Kyprianou said Cyprus will not agree to restart suspended EU-Turkey negotiations concerning energy as long as Turkish warships interfere with surveys off the island’s southern coast.
The island has been ethnically split into an internationally-recognized Greek Cypriot south and a Turkish Cypriot north since 1974, when Turkey invaded the island.
Cyprus became an EU country in 2004, but Turkey does not recognize the island’s government.
“It’s up to Turkey. If it pledges to behave like a modern state in the 21st century that wants to join the European Union and makes those necessary actions, Cyprus will then have no reason to raise objections,” Kyprianou said.
Turkey has threatened to “naturally defend” legal rights and interests in the wider maritime region and insists Turkish Cypriots should have a say in how the island’s oil and gas rights are used.
Kyprianou was responding to a decision by Turkey’s Cabinet, granting approval to the Turkish Petroleum Corp. to start a major geological survey for oil-and-gas deposits off its country’s southern coast.
The tense relations have already affected Turkey’s EU entry negotiations which have made scant progress since they began in 2005.
The spat has also complicated plans by the European Commission which has urged EU countries to open talks with Turkey on energy and speed up EU efforts to find alternative gas and oil routes.
The EU gets most of its natural gas from Russia through the Ukraine. However, a price dispute between Russia and Ukraine led to supply cutoffs last winter.
Turkey’s chief EU negotiator Egemen Bagis last month accused Cyprus of jeopardizing Europe’s energy needs by blocking the energy chapter..
Cyprus (10) -- Analyses -- 2009
Energy Exploration or Playing Politics?
1.11.2009
In a move more predictable than shocking, the Turkish government said that TPAO, the state-run Turkish oil company,
planned to launch oil and gas exploration in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Energy Minister Hilmi Guler said that the announcement was unrelated to Cyprus's
plans to launch tenders for 11 offshore blocks, but given Turkey's strained relations with the Greek Cypriot government, there can be little doubt that
Turkey's plans are a direct consequence of Cyprus's exploration initiative. Having resolved maritime borders with both Lebanon and Egypt, Cyprus has moved to
undertake possible joint exploitation of subsoil resources with both countries after marking out exclusive zones for each country to carry out exploration and
development work on its own.
With studies indicating that potentially between six and eight billion barrels of crude oil are located in the surrounding sea area, there is good reason for Cyprus,
which depends on imports for 92% of its energy needs, to kick off exploration. By that same rationale, however, Turkey, which is also highly dependent on energy imports,
has similar justification for launching offshore oil and gas exploration. Since Turkey sees itself as the sole defender of the rights of Turkish Cypriots, however, the
issue is that much more complex, and because Turkey and Cyprus have not agreed on their maritime borders, the potential for a dispute arising from the simultaneous
exploration is that much greater.
Turkey has already warned both Egypt and Lebanon over the exploration deals with Cyprus, so Turkey's move to start its own exploration in the eastern Mediterranean
represents a different approach by the Turkish government. Guler said that in the event of a dispute over fields in the Mediterranean, Turkey will be open to negotiations,
but the Cypriot government is gearing up for a fight. The Cypriot government said that any Turkish exploration for oil and gas off the island would be illegal, an
indication that Cyprus is expecting trouble. For its part, the Turkish government seems to be looking for trouble. Although there is hope that both sides will avoid
exploration in disputed waters, there seems to be a sense of inevitability to it. A potential discovery in disputed waters, of course, would merely exacerbate the
brewing turf battle.
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Bulgarian