Cavusoglu says drilling ship ‘entirely within Turkish continental shelf’
In a letter to European Union member countries and the foreign ministers of the United Nations Security Council’s permanent members, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Friday that the area off the western coast of Cyprus where Ankara plans to conduct exploratory drilling lies entirely within Turkish continental shelf.
According to the Anadolu news agency, Cavusoglu added that the EU’s recent press statement in support of Nicosia was made for the sake of EU solidarity and is not compatible with international law.
He also reiterate Turkey's position that it does not recognize the “unilateral and illegitimate exclusive economic zone claims of the Greek Cypriots” and stated that “third parties should refrain from taking sides in overlapping maritime boundary claims and they should not act as if they are a court in rendering judgment on bilateral maritime boundaries.”
The Turkish foreign minister also said that “there is no automacity in claiming that islands generate full maritime jurisdiction areas,” based on the letter cited by Anadolu.
