Mediterranean Oil.. Not Low-Hanging Fruit

Eslam al-Rihani

There is no such word as "Sorry" in our language. After learning the limits of rhetoric in its confrontation with the Zionist entity, failing to secure even an apology for the deaths of nine Turks in the May 2010 Gaza aid flotilla incident, Turkey has looked elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean - to Cyprus - for a place to demonstrate its influence. Since Turkish military intervention in 1974, Cyprus has been divided between an internationally recognized Greek Cypriot southwest, and a Turkish Cypriot northeast represented by the TRNC, established in 1983 and is only recognized by Ankara. Peace talks between Turkey and Greek Cyprus began in 2008, but little progress has been made. Tensions between the two sides have lately increased over the oil exploration project initiated by the government of Cyprus. Turkey has asserted that Cyprus does not have the right to exploit the island’s seabed resources unilaterally until the island’s status is resolved. This right has been also claimed by the Greek Cypriot government, as the island’s only official representative at the United Nations and a member of the European Union. Despite Turkey’s protest, the Greek Cypriot government continued its development plans, granting the U.S.-based ‘Noble Energy’ an exploration license in 2007 in ‘Block 12’ of Cypriot exclusive economic zone. Block 12 is the only area in the mentioned zone for which Cyprus has granted a license, and it sits near the Tamar field, which the Zionist entity has been developing since 1998. On September 27, 2011, a Turkish seismic survey vessel started natural gas exploration in an area off the southern coast of Cyprus, near where the Cypriot government began drilling seven days before. Ankara’s move to begin exploration, however, follows a deal reached on September 21 between Turkey and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) giving the coastal state the right to exploit seabed resources and licensing the Turkish Petroleum International Co. to begin energy exploration there. Turkey has opposed drilling by the Cypriot government since plans were initially put in 2007, but Ankara did not take any significant action against the project until the drilling began. This undoubtedly reveals that the conflict has less to do with energy competition than with Turkey’s geopolitical influence. Cyprus believes the present circumstances give it a unique opportunity to initiate its energy development project. This fact has resulted from the fraying ties between Turkey and “Israeli” entity which increase the risks for Ankara of conducting any sort of naval operations close to the drilling area; and from the fact that Turkey’s ties with the European Union are also at a low point. Cyprus hopes to portray Ankara as the provoker in this dispute and undermine Turkish-EU relations further before assuming the rotating EU presidency in the second half of 2012.

Source: Website Team Israeli Warplanes Fly Low over Turkish Exploration Ship

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