The Turkish Foreign Ministry said Thursday that the Eastern Mediterranean natural gas pipeline project, signed earlier in the day in Athens between the leaders of Greece, Cyprus and Israel, cannot succeed.
“Any project disregarding Turkey, which has the longest coastline in the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Turkish Cypriots, who have equal rights over the natural resources of the Island of Cyprus, cannot succeed,” spokesman Hami Aksoy said in a statement.
Aksoy stressed that the project is “the latest instance of futile steps” aimed at excluding Turkey and the Turkish Cypriots.
Bringing this issue once more to the attention of the international community, Aksoy underscored that “such sordid plans will continue to fail in the future, as they did in the past.”
The spokesman added that the Foreign Ministry believes that Turkey is the most commercially feasible and secure route for the utilization of the natural resources in the Eastern Mediterranean and their transfer to consumer markets in Europe, including Turkey.
“Refusing to cooperate both with us and Turkish Cypriots in spite of this fact is actually a direct manifestation of some countries’ pursuit of futile political motivations instead of cooperation,” Aksoy stated.
On Thursday, officials from Greece, Israel and the Greek Cypriot administration signed an agreement to build a 1,900-kilometer (1,180-mile) natural gas pipeline which will run from Israel, and go under the Mediterranean, to Southern Cyprus. It will then extend through Crete and the mainland of Greece and ultimately to Italy.
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