In his first public reaction to the approval of the Greek Marine Spatial Plan, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakcan Fidan announced that the Turkish equivalent of the MSP has already been completed and will be submitted to the UN agencies and warned that the Turkey “will not allow any unilateral step or fait accompli in Cyprus, the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean” and that it “will protect to the end its rights and interests in the region.”

Fidan responded in this way to the criticism that Tayyip Erdogan and the Turkish government are being criticized by the opposition for abandoning exploration and drilling in the Eastern Mediterranean, as well as the fact that the Central Asian countries participating in the Organization of Turkic States have recognized the Republic of Cyprus, thus dealing a blow to Ankara’s pursuit of upgrading the international status of the pseudo-state.

During a press conference with Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Eide (who was also the UN envoy for the Cyprus issue at the Crans Montana talks), he gave a brief account, noting that Turkey in 2020 had registered the outer limits of its continental shelf with the UN and had conducted seismic surveys and drilling within its “continental shelf” in the Eastern Mediterranean.

It even justified the absence of exploration activities and drilling from the Eastern Mediterranean in the priority given for technical reasons to the Black Sea region and the Sakarya field, where a large amount of hydrocarbons had been identified.

Regarding the Turkish government’s criticism of the issue of countries participating in the Organization of Turkic States, Fidan said there would be no public debate on the issue and Ankara prefers “not to discuss family issues in public,” stressing that “the manipulation operations of those who want to spoil our relations with the Turkish world” would fail.

On the Cyprus issue, he reiterated – and on the occasion of the presence of Eide (who, it should be noted, was distinguished for his far from objective stance in Crans-Montana) – that for Turkey the issue of federation is over and only the search for a solution based on two states is possible.

He even argued that the United Nations avoided any reference to a federation solution at the last Five-Party Conference held in Geneva, which is why measures were finally decided upon to facilitate communication between the “two states” in Cyprus.