Cyprus Suspends Peace Talks over Turkish Gas Threats
Cyprus said on Tuesday that it will not attend U.N.-led peace negotiations scheduled for this week in protest over Turkish moves to undermine the divided island's search for energy.
Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Dervis Eroglu had been due to meet inside the U.N.-controlled buffer zone in Nicosia on Thursday morning.
But after Anastasiades met political party leaders on Tuesday it was announced that he had decided against attending any peace talks for the time being.
"The Council of Leaders accepted the recommendation of the President of the Republic to suspend meetings of himself and his negotiator with the Turkish Cypriot side," government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides told reporters.
He did not clarify whether the process would be put on hold indefinitely, only saying that Nicosia was taking "legal and diplomatic" steps against Turkey's "hostile action" in Cyprus's exclusive economic zone.
"Turkey's actions constitute a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of Cyprus and the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, while undermining the security, stability and peace in the region," said Christodoulides.
He said that Cyprus expected its partners in the European Union and the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to "respond" to Turkey's actions.
Nicosia is unhappy that Ankara is determined to search for oil and gas in the same region where the government has already licensed exploratory drills in its exclusive economic zone.
Turkey, which has occupied the northern third of the island since 1974, opposes the exploitation of offshore hydrocarbon reserves by the Cyprus government before there is any peace deal.
And in remarks picked up by the Cyprus News Agency, Eroglu said the Greek Cypriot decision not to attend Thursday's meeting showed once again that "their efforts to find a solution through the talks are not sincere".
"The decision to suspend negotiations on the grounds of violating the sovereign rights of the Cyprus republic is incompatible with the realities of the Cyprus problem and is a new expression of their determination to ignore the rights of the Turkish Cypriot people," Eroglu was quoted as saying.
Source: Agence France Presse
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