Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was in Cyprus on Monday, visiting the occupied territories of the politically-divided island.
Cavusoglu held an official meeting with the Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Acinci and other officials of the Turkish Cypriot community.
In a joint press conference with Acinci, Cavusoglu then warned the government of the Republic of Cyprus to ”share the natural resources of the island before it’s too late”.
The Turkish Foreign Minister said that Turkey’s proposal to the Greek Cypriot side to mutually exploit the revenues from the island’s energy resources ”is still on the table.”
Cavusoglu declared that if the Greek Cypriots do not accept this proposal, ”Turkey will continue its drilling activities off the coast of the island.”
#KKTC ziyaretimiz
Visit to #TRNC pic.twitter.com/kf29K7Haqc
— Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu (@MevlutCavusoglu) September 9, 2019
Cacusoglu also declared that Turkey will not accept ”minority status” for the Turkish Cypriots in a potentially unified island in the future, demanding absolute parity in decision making.
Of course, what Cavusoglu did not mention is that even after the hundreds of thousands of Turkish settlers moved from Turkey to the occupied territories decades ago, the Turkish Cypriot population still represents approximately only 20 percent of the total population of the island.
It is noted that Turkey has already sent oil and gas research research ships, along with Navy vessels, close to and even inside the Exclusive Economic Zone of the Republic of Cyprus, violating its sovereign rights.
The EU has already decided to impose a series of further sanctions against Ankara as a result of these recent violations.
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