During the meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s Special Group for the Mediterranean and Middle East and the Sub-Committee on Partnerships that was held on Tuesday at the Hellenic Parliament’s Senate Hall in Athens, Mr. Osman Askin Bak, an MP of Turkey’s ruling party stated that there is not border issue between Greece and Turkey.

The Turkish MP also reiterated his country’s determination to continue conducting seismic surveys, as part of a hydrocarbon exploration mission, to the sea area where the sovereign rights for researching and developing the underwater resources belong exclusively to the Republic of Cyprus.

Mr. Bak accused Cyprus of taking unilateral actions and argued that Turkey has the right to explore the whole area of the Cyprus continental shelf.

It should be noted that, up to this moment, no official answer has been given by the Greek side and that Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos had already left the Senate Hall when the Turkish MP took the floor.

“Turkey is not trying to make any claims on Cyprus” said Mr. Bak and added: “On the contrary, in northern Cyprus there is a licensed area for research and the Turkish fleet is conducting seismic surveys only under the powers it has in the area, i.e. the coast of northern Cyprus. Barbaros conducts seismic surveys and we have warned against unilateral actions taken by Cyprus. The entire shelf is accessible and both populations can decide how they will use their resources. ”

Earlier in the day, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Venizelos’ addressed the Meeting of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly’s special group and made the following statement regarding Turkish provocations:

“We are concerned at the recent violations of the exclusive economic zone and continental shelf of the Republic of Cyprus. Beyond violating the sovereignty and sovereign rights of a member state of the UN and the European Union – rights enshrined in international law and especially the International Law of the Sea – this flagrant violation of international law is creating yet another front, another crisis, in an already turbulent region, at a time when the Alliance and the international community are and must be focused on the very serious crises and security threats I outlined earlier.

As I have already made clear, we strongly support the Mediterranean Dialogue as a platform for building cooperation and security in the region. This is also the aim of the trilateral cooperation initiative we have embarked on with our Cypriot and Egyptian partners; cooperation that is aimed not only at trilateral synergies in a variety of sectors – energy, delimitation of maritime zones (in accordance with international law and the Law of the Sea), tourism, transport – but also at engendering cooperation in the wider region. Cooperation that will bring stability, security and prosperity to the peoples of the region.

And with regard to NATO-EU relations, Greece always looks constructively at any proposal that will facilitate their cooperation, while ensuring full autonomy of decision-making between the two organizations.