Turkey will begin drilling for oil and gas near Cyprus in the coming days, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Thursday.
Turkey and the internationally recognised Cyprus government have overlapping claims of jurisdiction for offshore oil and gas research in the eastern Mediterranean, a region thought to be rich in natural gas.
"In the coming days we will start drilling with two ships around Cyprus," Cavusoglu was quoted as saying in a speech to a business conference in western Turkey.
"Let those who come to the region from far away, and their companies, see that nothing can be done in that region without us. Nothing at all can be done in the Mediterranean without Turkey, we will not allow that," Cavusoglu said.
Turkey launched its first drillship Fatih in October to drill off the coast of Turkey's southern Antalya province. It said a second ship that it purchased would operate in the Black Sea but was diverted to Cyprus where it opposes exploration by US, French and Italian oil giants.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has accused the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) of “speaking like Greek Cypriots” on the issue of explorations for oil and gas in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Recalling statements made by a CHP deputy regarding Turkey’s explorations in the East Med, Erdogan said: “He says that our operations in the Eastern Mediterranean should stop. Alleging that ‘not even a single bucket of oil was found’, he calls on Turkey to end its explorations for oil and natural gas. Since the very first day, we have been hearing these calls from the Greek Cypriots.”
He added: “It is very natural for the Greek Cypriots and others to be annoyed by the explorations conducted by Turkey in the Mediterranean…What hurts me the most is the fact that the CHP speaks the language of the Greek Cypriots.”
Erdogan said Turkey would not stop its energy search just because “the Greek Cypriots and some CHP deputies do not want them”.
“We will not stop defending the rights of our country and our northern Cypriot brothers over the energy resources, because the CHP is bothered.”
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