Cyprus will not back down in oil exploration dispute with Ankara

[Aristotelian]

Kathimerini 13/2/07

The president of Cyprus said in a newspaper interview published yesterday that he has received assurances from Egypt and Lebanon that they will go ahead with oil and gas exploration deals with the island despite threats from Turkey.

Cyprus signed a deal with Lebanon last month to mark out their undersea border to facilitate future oil and gas exploration. It signed a similar deal with Egypt last year and agreed to jointly exploit potential oil and gas fields. Turkey protested the deals, saying it had “legitimate and legal rights and interests” in the eastern Mediterranean. It insisted Turkish Cypriots should also have a say in the island’s oil and gas rights.

In his first comments since Turkey warned Egypt and Lebanon not to press ahead with the deal, Cypriot President Tassos Papadopoulos said he had received assurances from both countries that they will honor their agreements. “The reassurances we have is that they – Lebanon and Egypt – will respect the bilateral agreements we have signed,” Papadopoulos said in an interview with the To Vima newspaper. Bidding will begin on Thursday for offshore oil and gas exploration licenses, Papadopoulos said. Evaluation of applications will take place over the next six months.

Papadopoulos said Cyprus will not surrender its sovereign rights and “will not bow to threats.” “The national wealth belongs to the sovereign state, which is called the Republic of Cyprus, and not to one or the other community or groups of citizens,” Papadopoulos said. “We are not the ones who are being provocative and illegal.” (AP


Its beyond me and i think most of the world how Turkey still bullies the Greeks (cypriots). They have so many , many many many internal problems, yet they seek trouble outside of there designated area aswell?

Some things just never change.What makes it hard thought is that i believe most of the TURKISH people have changed, its just the military(the other half of there government) who still think they are the Ottoman Empire. Far from it.