Cyprus Offers Energy Line For Turkey

NICOSIA – Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said prospects for oil and gas finds off the island’s coast could provide an incentive for Turkey, which unlawfully invaded in 1974, to finally settle on a reunification plan and have access to energy, while providing  link and peace bridge to Israel as well.
The likelihood of any profits from oil or gas exploration off Cyprus is years away but Turkey, which still occupies the northern third of the island, insists that it should share in any returns if they happen.
That could put a damper on the negotiations to reunify Cyprus, which talks starting again after a two-year delay. Anastasiades, whose first year in office was spent dealing with an economic crisis, has now turned to the vexing problem that has eluded a solution for four decades.
But now the possibility of oil and gas reserves off the coast has spurred the international community, including the UN, US and energy companies, to try to bring Cypriots and their Turkish counterparts together.
In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Anastasiades said the reunification of ethnically-divided Cyprus could act as a linchpin to regional energy cooperation that could heal the strained relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv.
The two former allies fell out dramatically after Israeli commandos stormed a pro-Palestinian ship trying to breach a blockade of the Gaza Strip in May 2010. The raid killed eight Turks and one Turkish-American.
“A Cyprus settlement, reached as quickly as possible, will assist not only in Israeli (gas export) planning, but also contribute greatly to restoring relations with Turkey,” Anastasiades said.
Anastasiades said a deal would help Turkey plug its energy needs by allowing the country access to a steady supply of Cypriot and Israeli natural gas. Cyprus and Israel have both found potentially big gas deposits over the past few years, which they are looking to develop in partnership.
Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz said that any profits gained from oil and natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean should belong to people the people of Cyprus, including the Turks.
Comparing the island to Iraq, Yildiz told a press conference ‘the same way we say oil extracted from Iraq belongs to Iraq, we say that any oil or natural gas extracted anywhere around Cyprus belongs to Cyprus,” according to the World Bulletin.
Cyprus is also planning to build a liquefied natural gas processing plant which Israel would use to export its gas — a much cheaper alternative to building a pipeline direct to Turkey.
Anastasiades confirmed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may visit Cyprus in the spring to explore avenues for closer cooperation. That would be a landmark visit as it would be only the second time since the creation of Israel in 1948 that an Israeli premier has visited Cyprus.
Anastasiades said a deal would eliminate a key political impediment against exporting to Turkey. Ankara currently doesn’t recognize the island’s sovereignty and disputes its rights to the offshore gas deposits.
“This would be very significant for Turkey and at the same time significant for Israel and it could be another way Cyprus contributes to peace in the region,” he told the AP.