Cyprus warns Turkey against energy moves
Cyprus warned Turkey on Friday that if it re-entered the exclusive economic zone where Nicosia has licensed exploratory drilling there would be no chance of resuming stalled UN-brokered peace talks.
Government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said any such a move would be a “worrying development” and would only “validate the reason for not returning to the talks.”
Last October, a Turkish ship encroached on Cyprus’s EEZ off its south coast, after Ankara had given notice that a Turkish seismic vessel would carry out a survey in the same area where Italian-Korean energy consortium ENI-Kogas is operating.
In response, Cyprus suspended its participation in UN-led peace talks launched in February.
Warning against another incident, Christodoulides told the Cyprus News Agency on Friday, “While knowing such an action would not allow for talks to resume, it will unfortunately send the international community a negative message regarding the possibility of a resumption of talks.”
Turkish-Cypriot media reports say that Turkey is ready to issue a new maritime notice for its survey ship Barbaros from January 5.
[AFP]
