The spokesperson of the Turkish Foreign Ministry, Hami Aksoy, responding to a question regarding the commencement of operations of the American Exxon Mobil company in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), said that Turkey will start its own operations in “licensed areas of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry, repeated its warning to all companies that take part in Cyprus’ natural gas and oil exploration in the Eastern Mediterranean saying that “all the natural resources around the island of Cyprus belong not only to the Greek Cypriot side, but to both sides” saying that this activity is a ”unilateral search and extraction conducted by the Greeks”, referring to the Greek-Cypriots.

Aksoy also noted that the American company’s drilling “will change certain sensitive balances in terms of solving the Cyprus problem” adding that “sharing the natural resources of the island of Cyprus is a matter of the essence”.

This announcement comes only after the U.S. Assistant’s Secretary of State for Energy Resources statement from Cyprus that “the US strongly supports Cyprus’ right to develop its resources”.

Source: Nick Kampouris/greekreporter