Greece urged Turkey on Friday to stop harassing Cyprus
as it exploits offshore natural gas fields, thereby, according to the Cyprus
Mail, wading into a dispute that has complicated peace efforts on the island.
Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, who visited the
island briefly before going to Egypt together with President Anastasiades for a
meeting with President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi tomorrow during which they will
discuss energy cooperation.
“Provocations cannot be ignored, nor can they be
rewarded,” Samaras said in Nicosia. “We hope Turkey will reconsider, to allow
talks to resume.”
The Turkish research vessel, the Barbaros, has been
sailing in waters close to exploration sites that Cyprus has already licensed
to Italy’s ENI, France’s Total and U.S. Noble Energy, prompting Greek Cypriots
to suspend peace talks with the Turkish Cypriots last month.
The island reported its first find in 2011, with a
reservoir containing an estimated 5 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas. It
borders on waters Cyprus shares with Israel, which has recorded some of the
world’s biggest finds in the past decade. Turkey disputes Nicosia’s rights to
search for gas.
Greek Cypriots say Turkish Cypriots can share
potential benefits, but only when there is a peace deal.
“Hydrocarbons in Cyprus’s exclusive economic zone
belong to the Republic of Cyprus, and, post-settlement, any revenue from
exploitation will benefit all of Cyprus’s legal residents,” Anastasiades said
after a meeting with Samaras.
The two men talked about concerted action on all issues of mutual concern
and highlighted the stabilising role both countries can play, in particular as
EU member states.
Anastasiades stressed that their common goal was to
deescalate tension and not to provoke more.
“We would like to believe that both Turkey and our
Turkish Cypriot compatriots will realize that such unnecessary crises do not secure
anyone’s rights,” he said, adding that we are not the ones who caused the
tension.
Addressing a special session of the House of
Representatives later in the day, Samaras said Cyprus was becoming a valuable
asset for the EU.
“In 1974, Cyprus was an open wound in our national
subconscious. Today, the problem is still unsolved but Cyprus remains a source
of strength and pride for Hellenism,” he said.
Eide says focus on the future
UN Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide said on
Thursday he remained “realistically optimistic” that the two communities could
set aside the standoff over the hydrocarbons row and resume peace talks.
Speaking to the media after a long meeting with
President Nicos Anastasiades, the UN official said it was necessary for the
leaders of the communities to reach an agreement.
Asked about the prospects for a deal allowing the
resumption of reunification negotiations, Eide said he did not expect a deal
today.
Responding to a question as to why his meeting with
Anastasiades lasted two hours, Eide said only: “Good meetings always take
time.”
Eide said both sides in Cyprus should focus on the
future. Asked if he brought a formula to solve the impasse, he said: “I have a
number of ideas which you can call a formula or package,” adding that “it is
too early to reveal the details because I am still in discussions with both
sides and nothing has been agreed so far, nor did I expect anything to be
agreed.”
“But I want to insist on my main message, that both
leaders agree that hydrocarbons will be part of the shared future of a united
Cyprus. There is a striking agreement on the future and almost no agreement on
the present,” he said, urging everyone to focus on the future.
Asked whether he believed that the issue of natural
gas should be put on the negotiating table, he said that “if the table means the
UN table, that is up to the sides.” He stressed that it was important for
everyone in Cyprus to discuss what will happen in the future when there is a
unified island.
For his part, government spokesman Nicos
Christodoulides told reporters that Anastasiades and Eide discussed “a range of
ideas” on how peace talks might resume.
“There has been no conclusion. We welcome Mr. Eide’s
efforts,” Christodoulides said.
To the Greek Cypriot side, he
added, the cessation of Turkish provocations was a precondition for returning
to the negotiating table.
Earlier in the day, Eide met with Turkish Cypriot
leader Dervis Eroglu, who on Wednesday said that the withdrawal of a Turkish
research vessel from Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone was “out of the question.”
Moreover, according to Turkish
Cypriot daily Yeni Duzen, Eide said
that he had come to Cyprus, after trips to Ankara and Athens, with concrete
proposals and he hopes to develop these proposals together with the two sides.
On Wednesday, speaking in Athens, Eide had described
the dispute between Turkey and Cyprus over offshore drilling as “really quite
dangerous” and encouraged all parties to do their utmost to avoid any further
escalation.
The United States has expressed concern about recent
developments in the eastern Mediterranean.
Eide said after his
meeting with Eroglu that the status quo
on the island might not be as stable as in the past due to conditions in the
region.
“It is a bad
time for a non-solution,” he pointed out adding that the UN Secretary-General
believes in him and that Ban Ki-moon himself might be involved in the process
it this is needed.
Noting that
his aim is to create conditions for the resumption of the negotiations, Eide
reportedly said: “You know Eroglu is
ready to start the negotiations, but Anastasiades is not. We have to discuss
how we could create the conditions for the two sides to return to the table and
the negotiations to be speeded up.”
Asked whether he had acquired the impression that the Turkish exploration
vessels will be withdrawn from Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone before 30
December, Eide argued that Ankara is ready to support constructive ideas. Noting
that the ships are only one element, he said that the only thing he can do is
to express his impressions and that the sides can express their own views.
Eide recalled
that the hydrocarbon resources could be both a blessing and a curse and added
that for some countries their hydrocarbons have been turned into a curse.
In an
exclusive interview with Yeni Duzen and Kanal Sim television, Eide said if the sides
insist on their current positions, the problem will get bigger.
“The sides have different stances and I can
understand them. It is not my duty to say who is right and who is wrong. However,
if the sides insist on their positions, the existing problem will get bigger.”
He said that
together with the solution both communities will obtain important benefits and
added: “The decision is yours: You will
choose either to get rich together or to get poor separately.”
The Norwegian
diplomat pointed out that he is continuing his contacts and added that it is
not yet evident whether the negotiating process will start again. He went on and called on the sides to stop
acting by thinking that the other side will change its position.
He admitted
that the hydrocarbons was the reason for the current crisis and that there is a
deep disagreement on this issue.
“However, there is a point on which the sides
seriously agree as regards the future. And this point is that the hydrocarbons
is an important resource for the entire island and that after the solution it
will be taken up within the scope of a power executed under the federal
administration. Both the current leaders and the former leaders Talat
and Christofias say and confirm that these resources belong to the island and
will be taken up at a federal level. My approach is actually to focus on the
future. Because we, in Norway also had similar efforts. The oil and natural gas
issue is actually an issue concerning the future and it will take years for it
to come to the point of being usable,” he said.
Eide said that it might take ten years for income to be obtained from the
gas and added that it would be beneficial if issues regarding the future
administration of the natural resources were considered from now.
Anastasiades’ pointless temper tantrum
Loucas Charalambous writing in the Cyprus Mail and
Politis, says that the ‘withdrawal’ of President Anastasiades from the talks
reminds him of the well-known saying from the Cypriot vernacular, that “the
anger of the peasant is a loss to his pocket.”
It also reminded him of a simple-minded fellow he used
to know in the 1970s called Takis, a very likeable chap who would walk the
streets of Nicosia carrying his belongings in many bags and was generally known
as “Takis who throws his things”.
Takis had a paranoid fear of the police and kids would
taunt him that they would call the police to arrest him. At the uttering of the
word ‘police’, Takis would fly into a rage, cursing and shouting “You rascals,
if you annoy me again I will throw all my things.” At that they would wind him
up again – just like the Turks have been doing to us with the seismic ship
Barbaros – and a furious Takis, cursing and crying, would open one bag after
the other and empty the contents onto road.
He says that Anastasiades, following in the footsteps
of Christofias and Papadopoulos, does not want a settlement, any
settlement and has just found a
pretext to stop the talks. Just like his predecessors, he wants to perpetuate
the status quo because this ensures that he remains seated in the presidential
chair.
It was no accident that he wasted a whole year after his election,
without making any move on the Cyprus problem. Nor was it a coincidence that
the proposals he submitted to the other side contained the insane demand that
the Greek Cypriot community would elect the Greek Cypriot president and Turkish
Cypriot the vice president.
The man is trying to destroy all possibility of an
agreement, presumably because only the continuation of the status quo would
ensure he holds onto the presidency, at least until 2018. This is the only
rational explanation for the foolish decision he took, amid much fanfare, with
the rest of our political dwarves.
Dervis Eroglu responded by saying: “We want them to
return to the talks. But if they do not want to return, we will not force them
back.”
This is Anastasiades’ achievement – allowing Eroglu to
mock us. Of course, in a few days, his self-delusion that the Americans and
Europeans will force Turkey’s ship out of our EEZ will be exposed.
There are two possibilities now. First Turkey would
find an excuse to justify an even bigger intervention in our EEZ. Ankara would
tell anyone who made representations the following: “As we have been saying all
along, the Greek Cypriots want everything for themselves. Anastasiades said
that after a settlement the revenue from the natural gas would be shared by
everyone in Cyprus. The Greek Cypriots do not want a settlement and have quit
the peace process. But the drilling for gas continues which shows that they
want it all for themselves.”
Second, foreign countries that have become fed up with
our antics will turn round and tell us, “We have had enough and don’t care
whether you quit the talks.”
If they do not say this, they will explain to
Anastasiades that for as long as he boycotts the talks, Turkey has a pretext to
step up the gas explorations in Cyprus’ EEZ and that his only option is to
return to the talks.
In which case, Anastasiades will have to grudgingly
swallow his pride and pick up his things, just like Takis used to do.
