Ankara, July 16: Turkey has said punitive measures taken by the European Union (EU) against it won’t hinder it from proceeding to scan for oil and gas off the shore of Cyprus.
On Monday, the foreign minister of the EU consented to assemble off top-level state political conferences, halt negotiations over an aeronautics deal, and decrease EU accession financing reserved for Turkey, according to Al-Jazeera news reports.
The ministers of the 28-member alliance, of which Cyprus is a part, also welcomed the European Investment Bank to audit its loaning exercises in Ankara, strikingly with respect to sovereign-sponsored loaning.
In an official statement on Tuesday, the Turkish foreign ministry stated the bloc’s moves “will not affect in the slightest our country’s determination to continue hydrocarbon activities in the Eastern Mediterranean”.
The ministry further said the EU’s failure to mentioning Turkish Cypriots in its actions “showed how biased and partisan the EU is on the subject of Cyprus”.
Cyprus has been divided between Greek Cypriot south and Turkish Cypriot north since 1974 when Ankara deployed its armed forces’ personnel to the island in a retaliatory move to a Greek military coup.
The nation’s universally perceived government is situated in the Greek Cypriot south. Just Turkey perceives a Turkish Cypriot assertion of freedom and keeps somewhere in the range of 35,000 troops in the north.
Turkish foreign ministry on Wednesday said it has dismissed statements by the EU and Greek officials that Ankara processing oil-and-gas drilling off the coast of the island of Cyprus.