Turkish Cypriots want more sea
Nicosia will protest to the United Nations over the decision, late on Wednesday, by Turkish-Cypriot authorities to prepare a draft law that will quadruple the territorial waters around Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus to 12 miles, the Cypriot government said yesterday. Government spokesman Michalis Papapetrou said it was contradictory for the Turkish Cypriots to enter into UN-sponsored peace talks with the Cypriot government on the one hand and, on the other, to engage in such «gross provocations.» The Turkish Cypriots had claimed their move followed similar action recently from Nicosia. But Papapetrou noted that the Cypriot government had, in fact, last extended its territorial waters 38 years ago, in 1964. In Athens, Foreign Ministry spokesman Panos Beglitis described Wednesday’s decision as «an illegal act of an illegal regime… intended to undermine the peace process.» Turkey has threatened to declare war on Greece if Athens ever extends its own territorial waters to 12 miles.
