The government Vice President and Foreign Affairs Minister Evangelos Venizelos recently visited Turkey, where he me with the Turkish Minister of Foreign Affairs Melvut Cavusoglu and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. From the lengthy discussions that took place it transpired that while two sides agreed to restart talks on the Cypriot dispute, there was little very little agreement on anything else.
Greco-Turkish relations have recently been strained as Turkey has begun conducting surveys with the Barbaros in what is regarded as the Cypriot EEZ. Mr. Cavusoglu told Mr. Venizelos that Ankara would not accept any “unilateral” actions on the energy matter and stated the Greek Cypriot side must stop its drilling first. Suspending the drilling would have a huge political and financial cost of Nicosia.
The Turkish Minister instead favored the idea of setting up a company that would manage any potential natural gas fields on behalf of both communities on the island. Mr. Cavusoglu made such a proposal at the Turkish National Assembly and added that such a company could be privately owned.
The Greek Minister clarified that there was “an insult in progress” against the sovereign rights of the Cypriot Republic and stressed that it must end in order for talks to recommence. He also distinguished the natural resources belonging to the Republic of Cyprus (and by extension what it may evolve into) and the revenue from natural resources belonging to both communities. Mr. Venizelos also reminded that there has been agreement on these issues in the past and referred to the agreements of Dimitris Christofias with Turkish Cypriot leaders Mehmet Talat and Dervis Eroglu between 2008 and 2012.
