Gas Issue Sees Cyprus Peace Talks Unlikely in Near Future

The UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser Espen Barth Eide said that direct Cyprus peace talks are unlikely in the near future.  

“We are not giving up…but right now there are no prospects for an immediate meeting (of the two leaders) and I think that will be true for quite awhile,” Eide said on Wednesday. 

Cyprus’ President Nicos Anastasiades reiterated that natural resources will be managed by the central Government. 

“The things that I have suggested are self-evident, such as, for example, the natural gas, which belongs only to the state, and whose management belongs to the legitimate Government at any given time according to the Constitution in force… These are very clear positions that do not allow any misinterpretation” Anastasiades commented in a note released on Wednesday. 

Anastasiades withdrew from talks in October 2014, when Turkey announced its intention to carry out seismic survey in a block already licensed to the Eni/KOGAS consortium.

Also on Wednesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was in Cyprus too. He met with Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglou. The two held a joint press conference, speaking out against a unilateral oil and gas search.  

A Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence is recognised only by Ankara, which has 35,000 troops in the north. 

Meanwhile, Cavusoglu reportedly said that TANAP, the16-bcm project from Azerbaijan to the Greel-Turkish border,  remains a priority for Turkey.