国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Turkey to continue gas search off Cyprus despite intl warnings_时事

国际英语资讯:Spotlight: Turkey to continue gas search off Cyprus despite intl warnings

The discovery of rich gas reserves in Eastern Mediterranean in the last decade has triggered a race to tap the region's underwater resources and sparked tensions between Ankara and Nicosia, as well as between Ankara and the EU and Athens, which is a traditional ally of the Greek Cypriots.

Turkey has also a series of disputes over territorial issues in the Aegean sea with NATO ally Greece. The two countries came to the brink of war in 1996 over mutual claims on inhabited islets.

Political analyst Serkan Demirtas suggested the establishment of a joint mechanism sponsored by the EU and other international organizations to oversee "the rights of the Turkish Cypriots" to prevent the current rift from developing into a future conflict.

"Turkish position is not categorically against the Greek Cypriot-led exploration activities, but insists that all these efforts should be made with the participation of the Turkish Cypriots," he said.

The Turkish Cypriots have offered to set up a joint committee for a fair share of the island's natural resources. However, the proposal was rejected by Greek Cypriots.

Demirtas emphasized that the core of the drilling dispute is the division of Greek and Turkish Cypriots, and the issues of sovereignty over overlapping exploration fields.

Meanwhile, Greek Cypriots are ramping up pressure, now that big oil companies have discovered more and more gas around Cyprus, which found its commercial partners such as Egypt and Israel to try to commercialize the valuable gas reserves.