North calls for hydrocarbons talks

The breakaway regime on Thursday called on energy minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis to discuss the issue of hydrocarbons with the aim of resolving the dispute between the two sides and facilitating efforts to reunify the island.

Speaking on Bayrak television, the north’s ‘energy minister’ Ozdil Nami said he was ready to talk hydrocarbons with Lakkotrypis under UN auspices or at any other venue.

“If the Greek Cypriot minister wishes to discuss with us, there are ways, we can sit down like civilized people and talk,” Nami said.

He went on to accuse Greek Cypriots of using the hydrocarbons issue as a bargaining chip over Turkey.

An agreement might see revenues from natural gas being transferred into a fund, to be used to finance a future settlement of the Cyprus problem, he added.

According to Nami, Turkey has legitimate rights over hydrocarbons in the sea area around the island, as do the Turkish Cypriots.

“On the one hand, the Greek Cypriot side signed agreements for its own benefit with companies from America, France and Italy, and is striving to safeguard these agreements, but as soon as it finds itself in a tight spot it seeks to shift the whole issue to the EU and asks for their support,” said Nami.

“In a similar way, we are cooperating with Turkey in a bid to safeguard our own interests.”

 

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.