OIL AND gas exploration, and last year’s agreement for the two sides to start talks will take centre stage today at the meeting in Athens between President Tassos Papadopoulos and Greek Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis.
Papadopoulos attended an official dinner with Karamanlis last night.
On his departure for Athens yesterday, Papadopoulos said the plan for oil exploration, which has angered Turkey, was not on any agenda but said the issue would likely come up.
“Every time we meet with the Greek government all current issues are discussed and it would be unnatural not to refer to this issue,” he said.
Turkey has raised strong objections to Cyprus exploring for hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean and has also warned Egypt and Lebanon over signing agreements with Cyprus.
Turkish media sees the Athens visit as an attempt by Papadopoulos to secure the backing of the Greek government for the exploration.
Papadopoulos has also received some criticism in the Greek press for attempting to drag Greece into the row and raising tensions between Athens and Ankara.
Greece and Turkey and came close to war in 1987 over a drilling rights dispute in the Aegean. A crisis was averted when Turkey withdrew a seismic exploration ship and agreed not to test in contested waters if Greece did the same.
According to Turkish press reports, diplomats were worried over tensions escalating between Greece and Turkey resuming over the Cyprus exploration deal.
But Greece and Cyprus insist that relations are normal. “Athens and Nicosia speak the same language,” government spokesman Christodoulos Pashiardis said at the weekend.
Observers also worry about the very likely setback the oil and gas issue might pose to progress on the Cyprus problem. The Turkish side has already warned of the adverse effects of going ahead with the exploration and its implications for negotiations.
But Papadopoulos said as far as the Greek Cypriot side was concerned, the UN-brokered agreement of July 8, last year for the setting up of technical committees and working groups, would go forward.
“We insist and wish for the commencement of the work of both groups, committees, with a full observance of the July 8 agreement,” he said.
However the Turkish Cypriot side, in a statement yesterday, repeated that the deals signed with Lebanon and Egypt were a violation of the rights of Turkish Cypriots.
“The Greek Cypriot side’s stance, which might lead to unnecessary tension in the region, has revealed once again the need to find a comprehensive solution to the Cyprus issue as soon as possible,” said the statement from the north.
“The Greek Cypriot leadership… is trying to create new problems with its irresponsible policies rather than engaging in efforts to move forward the process aimed at finding a solution to the Cyprus issue based on political equality within the UN framework.”
