FM sees ‘historic opportunity’ for solution to Cyprus issue

Greece is ready to start talks with Turkey to resolve a long-standing dispute over maritime borders that has repeatedly brought the two neighbors to the brink of armed conflict, newly appointed Foreign Minister Giorgos Gerapetritis has said.

Gerapetritis said the government wants to “take advantage of the ongoing positive climate” in order to come to an agreement on delineating the areas in which each country has exclusive economic rights, including the right to search for offshore oil and gas.

“The moments we are living in are indeed historic. The situation is quite difficult, regionally and internationally, the challenges are very big. We should, in the framework of our common understanding and understanding of the way in which our interests should be promoted, ensure that the Cyprus issue receives the just, sustainable solution that we all desire,” he said.

“I think it is yet another historic opportunity to try, in the context of the UN and the EU, which seems to be taking on a more active role thanks to your own personal efforts and the support of the Greek Prime Minister. I think the times will show that it is a great challenge, but also a great opportunity.”

Turkey disputes areas which Greece says fall within its own economic zone and where it’s seeking to start a search for offshore oil and gas reserves. Turkey claims much of the economic zone of Cyprus where several sizeable offshore natural gas deposits have been discovered.

The feud over exploratory drilling rights had culminated in a naval standoff three years ago.

Another key issue at the heart of Greek-Turkish tensions that Gerapetritis wants resolved is the extent of the continental shelf – and by extension, Greek sovereign territory – of Greek islands near Turkey’s coastline in the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean.

Turkey doesn’t recognize that Greek islands off its borders have a continental shelf, while Greece insists that position is in contravention of international law.

“All that remains is to determine whether Turkey also sincerely wishes to forge a path of rapprochement, without this meaning that Greece will go back on its red lines or its national priorities,” Gerapetritis said after talks with his Cypriot counterpart, Constantinos Kombos.

Gerapetritis said at the top of those priorities is an agreement to reunify ethnically divided Cyprus as a federation made up of Greek and Turkish speaking sectors in line with United Nations resolutions.

Cyprus was split in 1974 when Turkey invaded following a coup by supporters of union with Greece. Turkey and the breakaway Turkish Cypriots now insist that any peace deal has to first recognize separate Turkish Cypriot sovereignty.

Greek and Turkish officials have held a series of high-level meetings in the wake of devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey in February. They promised to shelve disputes that have caused repeated rounds of tension and even the risk of war over decades.

Just before his reelection last month, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told The Associated Press in an interview that he would extend “a hand of friendship” to Turkey. [AP]