As is known, our drilling ship Fatih has begun its activities in last May,
in the west of the Island of Cyprus, where our Government has granted
licenses to the Turkish Petroleum in 2009 and 2012 within our continental
shelf in the Eastern Mediterranean notified to United Nations. Our second
drilling ship Yavuz, deployed in the south of the Karpas peninsula, will
operate on behalf of the Turkish Cypriots within the license areas granted
by Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) to the Turkish Petroleum in
2011.
We find it quite odd the Greek Foreign Minister Nicos Dendias' statement in
an interview regarding Turkey’s off-shore activities in the Eastern
Mediterranean which are being carried out in compliance with international
law. In fact, the title “spoiled child of Europe” belongs to Greece. And
the hellion of Europe is the Greek Cypriot Administration, which became a
member of the EU against international law and thus destabilized the
Eastern Mediterranean together with Greece for years. Being a member of the
European Union, allegedly representing the entire Island does not give the
Greek Cypriot Administration the right to usurp the legitimate rights and
interests of the Turkish Cypriots.
With this understanding, we also reject the statements made by the Greek
Foreign Ministry and the EU officials declaring Turkey’s aforementioned
activities as illegal. It is an exemplary point of concern that these
statements do not ever mention the Turkish Cypriots and as such ignore
their very existence in the Island despite the fact that they are one of
the co-founders of the Republic of Cyprus, whose rights have been usurped
since 1963.
The European Union has become an actor of this play of unlawfulness staged
by the Greek Cypriot-Greek partnership against the rights of the Turkish
Cypriots who are the co-owners of the Island. It has thus become clear that
the European Union will not be able to assume the role of an honest broker
in the negotiation processes towards the settlement of the Cyprus issue.
As she protects its own continental shelf rights in the Eastern
Mediterranean, Turkey will continue to defend Turkish Cypriots’ rights and
interests around the Island, insofar as the Greek Cypriots do not involve
Turkish Cypriots in the decision making mechanisms, including the revenue
sharing on hydrocarbon resources, and guarantee their rights.
In this context, we fully support the recent statements of the Turkish
Cypriot Authorities who granted licenses to Turkish petroleum in 2001 which
indeed constitute the legal and legitimate basis of the operations of our
drilling ship Yavuz.