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MEOG Commentary MEOG
Tensions simmer around Cyprus and East Med gas plan
Tensions between Turkey and Cyprus have flared as potential gas finds around the island come to the surface.
east med
What:
Tensions have arisen around Cyprus’s offshore.
Why:
Conflicting Views of Greece, Cyprus and Turkey have risen to the surface.
What next:
A dose of calm diplomacy is required.
TENSIONS between Turkey and Cyprus that have been simmering for decades flared up again this month after Cyprus called Turkey a “pirate state” following the Turkish President’s renewed vow to start drilling for natural gas off the coast of the disputed island.
“Turkey is turning into a pirate state in the eastern Mediterranean. Turkey insists on going down the path of international illegality,” the Cypriot president was quoted as saying. This fol- lowed a statement by Turkey’s President Erdogan last year in which he angered Cyprus by staking a claim to some of the natural gas wealth that is being discovered in the waters around the island.
Cyprus has however backtracked on a claim that Turkey “stole” technical data enabling it to drill for natural gas in waters where the island nation has exclusive economic rights. Govern- ment spokesman Kyriakos Koushos told the Associated Press on Thursday that the word “stolen” was a “slip of the tongue,” adding that no such data theft had occurred.
Koushous had previously told Greece’s state broadcaster ERT that although Cyp- riot authorities did not have definitive proof, it was believed that Ankara had “stolen plans and studies” that enabled it to send a drilling ship to a specific location selected by energy giants Eni and Total. Koushous then went onto accuse Ankara of “gunboat diplomacy,” adding “Turkey has become the pirate state of the east Mediterranean.”
however, in retracting the accusation, he said
that Ankara had not stolen any such data. he said that the data may have been gleaned from a Turkish research vessel that scoured an area south of the Cypriot coastal town of Limassol for months or possibly obtained from the Cypriot Environment Ministry’s own website.
turkey’s vision
Turkey has been exploring for oil and gas in the eastern Mediterranean waters around disputed Cyprus, and in August of last year Erdogan said “No project [in the region] can be realised if Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus are not involved.”
Since then, Ankara has been moving forward with its drilling plans despite criticism from not just Cyprus but also Greece and the European Union. Last week, after Erdogan said drilling would start “as soon as possible,” the EU warned that Turkey should reconsider its drilling plans. The EU also called these exploration plans illegal.
The reason that Erdogan is so intent on drilling for gas offshore Cyprus, where Turkey controls about a third of the territory after two consecutive invasions in 1974 is because Cyprus is part of the new hot spot in natural gas: the Eastern Mediterranean. The area began attract- ing attention after a couple of major finds off the coast of Israel made headlines and after Italy’s Eni discovered the Zohr gas field offshore Egypt. Two discoveries were made offshore Cyprus as well. One of these fields is the Aphrodite field, just 30 km from the giant Leviathan gas field
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w w w. N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 04 29•January•2020