EU threatens Turkish regime with more sanctions for illegal drilling in Cypriot waters

If the Turkish regime continues its illegal energy drilling in Cryprus’ exclusive economic zone, the European Union will be forced to respond with additional sanctions, EU spokesman Peter Stano said last week.

“There has been a break, but there has been no change in the EU`s position on illegal Turkish actions in the eastern Mediterranean, so the EU`s position is clear, unchanging,” Stano told Cyprus News Agency.

“We have reiterated many times that we express our concern and the strong condemnation of the continuing Turkish activity associated with illegal drilling in the eastern Mediterranean, we stand strong together with Cyprus,” Stano added.

In November of 2019, sanctions were imposed against Turkey which established a legal framework for asset freezes and travel bans were agreed on by the bloc’s foreign ministers. The sanctions looked to punish the Erdogan regime for infringing upon Cyprus’ maritime economic zone by drilling for oil off the coast of the Mediterranean island.

A few months later, at the end of February 2020, the EU imposed asset freezes and travel bans against two Turkish nationals. The bloc did stop short, however, of targeting Turkish companies so as not to alienate their alleged ally who formerly helped to prevent migration into Europe from the Middle East.

Unfortunately, the sanctions have failed to deter Turkish drilling in Cyprus’ exclusive economic zone. Last Wednesday, Turkey announced that it would begin drilling for oil in Cypriot waters with the Yavuz drillship from April 20th to July 18th.

According to a report from Cyprus News Agency, the Yavuz drillship set sail toward Cyprus sometime before midnight on Sunday.

Kyriakos Koushos, a spokesman for the Cyprus government, warned that the Turkish regime’s aggressive policy is causing an already tense situation in the Eastern Mediterranean to deteriorate even further.

“Turkey continues to follow a policy that ignores even the pandemic and does not respect the difficulties which countries are facing,” Koushos said, adding “We condemn Turkey’s actions and we continue in a consistent manner to implement our policy which is based on the international law and the sovereign.”

“Turkey has been implementing gunboat diplomacy, and acting as the pirate of the Eastern Mediterranean, breaching and violating the international law and interfering with the sovereign rights of third countries, including Cyprus.”

Arthur Lyons

Πηγή:voiceofeurope.com