In an interview with Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias commented on the Turkish violations in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). “Turkey has committed multiple violations of the international law”, said Nikos Kotzias.
As he underlined, Turkey illegally conducted naval exercises in foreign countries’ EEZ, and violated the provisions of the international law regarding the exercise of freedom of the high seas. Moreover, Turkey has no authorization to issue NAVTEX for foreign territories, Greek Foreign Minister said.
However, these actions will not affect Cyprus’ energy plans, Nikos Kotzias estimated. As he said Turkey could not persist in its aggressive stance, as the next energy plans in Cyprus’ EEZ include France and USA.
Commenting the latest announcement by the European Council regarding Turkish challenges in Cyprus’ EEZ and Aegean Sea, Kotzias said that it is a “very sharp statement, far stricter than the one issued for the incident of Imia in 1996”.
“Cyprus Issue is essentially a problem of invasion and occupation”, said Foreign Minister, adding that during the negotiations in Crans-Montana the essence of the problem was adequately shown by the Greek and Greek Cypriot leadership. “Occupation and Turkey’s «guarantee» rights are no longer a taboo that cannot be discussed”, underlined Mr. Kotzias.
He also stated that international community now takes part in negotiations over Cyprus Issue, for the first time since 1970, and fully supports that these demands are reasonable.