'Don't sacrifice talks in Cyprus for natural gas'

Turkey urges Washington to postpone natural gas drilling plans of a US firm in East South Mediterranean, claiming that trade ambitions of Greek Cyprus could blow out reunification talks between Turkish and Greek Cypriots. Turkey is launching an international campaign to draw attention to the contested nature of Mediterranean economic zone agreements following a Greek Cypriot decision to begin exploring for natural gas deposits off its southeast coast. Turkey has been urging the U.S. administration to postpone the date of natural gas exploration activities of a U.S firm off the coast of Cyprus until the island is reunified because the Greek Cypriot exploitation of the island’s common natural resources could entirely sap the southern territory’s desire for a solution, an official from the Turkish Foreign Ministry told the Hürriyet Daily News on Sunday. Ankara is urging Washington “not to sacrifice the political reunification process of Cyprus for trade,” according to an official. “We told the U.S. officials that the unilateral oil and natural gas exploration activities by the Greek Cypriots were against international law and could lead to the end of the ongoing negotiation process for Cyprus unification,” the official said. Turkey has already conveyed its reservations to the U.S. Embassy in Ankara and to the U.S. State Department in Washington and will bring the issue to the attention of higher-level U.S. officials, he said. Turkey plans to convey its concerns to the members of the U.N. Security Council. Ankara objects to two aspects of Greek Cyprus’ agreements with Israel, Lebanon and Egypt in the eastern Mediterranean region, which is believed to possess large reserves of natural gas. Greek Cyprus’ bilateral agreements are invalid because they the territory did not first solicit the approval of Turkish Cypriots, Turkey has said. “It’s improper that the Greek side is acting unilaterally as if they were the sole owner of the island,” the official said. Greek Cypriots recently signed a production-sharing contract with Noble Energy to launch exploration activities in November in block 12, an economic zone southeast of the island. The activity depends on the agreement signed on the Delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone in 2010 between Israel and Greek Cyprus.