Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou Marcoullis has called on the Turkish side to abandon its gunboat diplomacy, threats and aggression and instead adopt a policy of peaceful co-existence and cooperation with the Republic of Cyprus. Addressing an event in Athens organised by Cypriot organizations in Greece, Marcoullias stressed that the Cyprus issue remains a problem of invasion and occupation, of illegal settlement and violation of international law and human rights.
Referring to the ongoing exploration efforts to find hydrocarbons within Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone, she said it is an exclusive and non negotiable right of the Republic of Cyprus, recalling that the international community fully endorses this position.
She pointed out that exploration in Cyprus’ EEZ will continue despite Turkish threats. She stressed that Turkey’s effort to link exploration for hydrocarbons with the ongoing direct negotiation process is unacceptable.
The Cyprus issue is a problem that exists because of Ankara’s intransigent policy, which insists on ignoring, pretentiously, the high number of UN resolutions and decisions of European and international courts.
“Turkey has never ceased to seek the consolidation of the de facto situation, using the fruitless lapse of time with a view to leading the Republic to accept the final division of Cyprus and a solution on the basis of ‘two states’ ”, she added.
Commenting on last month’s meeting of President of the Republic Demetris Christofias and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu with the UN SG in New York, Marcoullis said that the UN SG in his statement had noted that on the issues which were discussed, namely the issues of government, territory, property, and immigration, minor progress was achieved.
“Some steps forwards have been made in the issues of economy, internal security and EU”, she noted, adding however that these issues had already been discussed in Cyprus.
The Foreign Minister stressed that unless the Turkish side relinquishes its gunboat diplomacy, threats and aggression and moves from propaganda talk to an actual shift of its dogmatic policies, there can be no solution to reunite Cyprus.
She also said that an international conference should be convened by the UN only if the two sides are close to an agreement on the internal aspects of the Cyprus issue. The international conference, she added, should only concern the international aspects of the problem and in that conference the five permanent members of the UNSC, the three guarantor powers, the Republic of Cyprus and the two communities should participate.
“Our readiness to settle the Cyprus problem must not, under any circumstances, be taken as a sign of reduced determination to safeguard and defend our sovereign rights,” she pointed out.
The Minister said that locating oil and natural gas reserves in Cyprus’ EEZ would be a strong incentive which could act as a catalyst towards a settlement.
On Turkey’s European aspirations, she said that Cyprus is not seeking to halt Turkey’s accession process but this, she pointed out, must not be misinterpreted as a blank cheque to Ankara, which has to meet it EU obligations.
Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkey invaded and occupied its northern third. Peace talks are currently underway to find a negotiated settlement that will reunify the country, under a federal roof.
The leaders of the two communities in Cyprus met on October 30 and 31, at Greentree, Long Island, with the UN Secretary General. The UN Secretary General said, after the conclusion of the meeting, that the leaders assured him that they can finalise a deal, acknowledging that there is still work to be done and that by January, when they will meet again with the Secretary General, he expects that the internal aspects of the Cyprus problem will have been resolved so that they can move to the multilateral conference shortly thereafter.
Following a decision by Nicosia to begin natural gas and oil exploration in its exclusive economic zone, Ankara has deployed warships in the Eastern Mediterranean and has signed an illegal agreement with the Turkish Cypriot regime in occupied Cyprus to delineate what it calls continental shelf.
Drilling has already begun and is being carried out by Houston-based “Noble Energy”, off Cyprus’ south-eastern coast.
