Turkey ‘determined’ to continue drilling

Turkey will continue its drilling activities with determination, Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said on Sunday from Kyrenia.

“Whoever intends to limit the Turkish continental shelf in the Gulf of Antalya should be aware that Turkey will pursue its exploration and drilling activities with determination,” Anadolu news agency quoted him as saying.

“Every centimetre of our land is valuable and essential,” he added during the launch of a rescue ship called Gemi Kurtaran.

Turkey currently has two drill ships stationed off the coast of Cyprus with Turkey saying this week that more would be dispatched.

The rescue ship will be used in possible sea accidents in the Mediterranean and also to prevent pollution, Oktay said.

“Turkey defends the eastern Mediterranean so it is a sea of peace and it is right to extract the natural resources and thus to share them”.

Oktay is in the north as part of celebrations to mark the 45th anniversary of the Turkish invasion on Saturday.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.