By Bill Varner – Sep 22, 2011 7:16 PM GMT+0200<\/p>\n
Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said Turkey\u2019s moves to extract oil and gas from waters off the divided Mediterranean Sea island are illegal provocations that risk a renewal of hostilities.<\/p>\n
\u201cTurkish naval maneuvers in the region of Cyprus\u2019s Exclusive Economic Zone, where exploration is being carried out, are provocative and a real danger for further complications in the region,\u201d Christofias said in a speech today to the United Nations General Assembly.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wish, from this esteemed podium, to condemn this illegal act which constitutes a provocation, not only for the Republic of Cyprus but also for the entire international community,\u201d Christofias said. \u201cTurkey and the Turkish Cypriot leadership are trying to create tension and new illegal faits- accomplis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Turkey, which invaded Cyprus in 1974 and is the only country to recognize the Turkish Cypriot north as an independent nation, disputes Cyprus\u2019s right to explore for hydrocarbons in its Exclusive Economic Zone and has sent warships to the area.<\/p>\n
Reunification talks resumed in 2008 after Greek Cypriots, who run the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus in the south, rejected a UN-sponsored settlement plan.<\/p>\n
A Turkish vessel will sail tomorrow to begin seismic exploration for oil and gas in waters of the Mediterranean north of Cyprus, Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said today.<\/p>\n
Also today, in a statement released by his government\u2019s press office, Christofias gave a \u201cguarantee\u201d that Turkish Cypriots will benefit from offshore discoveries before the island is unified. The continental-shelf agreement announced yesterday by Turkey and northern Cyprus is \u201cunacceptable,\u201d Christofias said in the statement.<\/p>\n
Christofias also told the General Assembly that the unification talks have been set back by what he described as Turkish Cypriot \u201cretracting on the negotiation table, including from previously found convergences.\u201d The change in the Turkish Cypriot position, he said, \u201cfeeds on recent negative and provocative policy of Turkey in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n
To contact the reporter on this story: Bill Varner in United Nations at wvarner@bloomberg.net<\/p>\n
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Mark Silva at msilva34@bloomberg.net<\/p>\n
via Christofias Says Turkey\u2019s Moves on Cyprus Oil Risk New Conflict – Bloomberg.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bill Varner – Sep 22, 2011 7:16 PM GMT+0200 Cypriot President Demetris Christofias said Turkey\u2019s moves to extract oil and gas from waters off the divided Mediterranean Sea island are illegal provocations that risk a renewal of hostilities. \u201cTurkish naval maneuvers in the region of Cyprus\u2019s Exclusive Economic Zone, where exploration is being carried […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":30954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[211],"tags":[4376,4015,1509],"class_list":["post-44323","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cyprus-trnc","tag-christofias","tag-oil-and-gas-exploration","tag-taner-yildiz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44323"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44323\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}