Turkey seeks UN action on Greek Cyprus

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades leaves following a Eurozone meeting at Brussels. AFP photo

Greek Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades leaves following a Eurozone meeting at Brussels.

A unilateral decision by the Greek Cypriot Parliament to solve their economic problems by marketing natural resources of the divided island – which was made without negotiation with the Turkish side – is meant to seize the rights of the Turkish Cypriot people, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu reiterated late on March 28.

Speaking to SKYTürk 360 TV news channel, he announced that Ankara had appealed to the U.N. regarding the issue.

In a phone conversation last week with his U.S. counterpart, Davutoğlu also conveyed Turkey’s objections to the Greek Cypriot plan, saying, “Ankara will not accept the Greek Cypriot administration’s use of its economic dire straits as an excuse for ‘a fait-accompli.’”

Turkey warned that the Greek Cypriot plan would risk a fresh crisis in the region, and such a move would ignore the Turkish Cypriots’ equal rights to the hydrocarbon resources of the island.

“Greek Cypriot plans to put the island’s joint resources as collateral for a solidarity fund is just another reflection of the Greek Cypriot illusion that it is the sole owner of the entire island, and it risks a fresh crisis in the region,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement last week.