Southern Cyprus Issues Arrest Warrant Against Turkey’s Drill Ship Fatih
* Photograph: Fatih Drill Ship / Kıbrıs Haberci website
Click to read the article in Turkish
The Administration of Southern Cyprus has acquired the names and addresses of the ones working at Turkey's Fatih Drill Ship, which has been operating 36.50 nautical miles from the coastal town of Baf since early May, and officials of the companies working in cooperation with the Turkish Petroleum Corporation and issued an arrest warrant against them.
Arrest warrant against 25 people
As reported by the Phileleftheros newspaper, Southern Cypriot authorities have acquired the names and addresses of the people in question in cooperation with the third parties and issued arrest warrants against 25 workers and officials so far.
The website has also reported that in addition to the ones coming from Turkey, the ship also has workers from other countries such as the UK and the country has cooperated with three companies specialized in offshore drilling, two from the US and one from Croatia.
CLICK - US Warns Turkey: 'Halt Drilling in Cypriot-Claimed Waters'
'Yavuz will be sent in July'
As reported by the newspaper, Turkey is expected to send its second drill ship Yavuz to Karpaz Bay in July 2019.
The newspaper has also shared a map allegedly prepared by the US Bureau of Energy Resources and first published on the website www.mcclatchydc.com. The map shows the natural gas deposits and export routes in Eastern Mediterranean:
Map allegedly presented to Erdoğan himself
The same US-based website has alleged that the map in question was presented to President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in person and it has also been delivered to other countries in the region such as Southern Cyprus, Israel and Lebanon.
The newspaper has based its news on Amos Hochstein, former special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs of US.
Erdoğan: We won't let these rights be denied
After the Greek Cypriot Administration made a deal with the US-based Noble Energy company, President Erdoğan made a statement regarding the issue on June 9 and stated that according to international law, it is equally the right of Northern Cyprus to benefit from the resources in the region.
Underlining that the frigates of the Turkish Armed Forces have been sent to the region to protect the drill ships of Turkey, Erdoğan said, "We won't let these rights be denied to us by the ones who have nothing to do with them."
What is Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)?An exclusive economic zone (EEZ) is a sea zone prescribed by the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Law of the Sea over which a state has special rights regarding the exploration and use of marine resources, including energy production from water and wind. It is an area which is beyond and adjacent to a country's territorial seas, and extends no more than 200 nautical miles (370 km) out from a country's own coastlines. It can be seen that if the area for EEZ is overlapped and it is still less than 400 nautical miles, then it falls upon the respective states to delineate the actual boundaries of the coastlines. Generally, any point within an overlapping area defaults to the nearest state. Turkey is not a party to this convention for a series of reasons including its conflict with Greece over continental shelf in Aegean Sea. * Sources: Wikipedia, worldatlas.com |
Drilling disagreement started in 2010In December 2010, the Greek Cypriot side unilaterally signed the Continental Shelf Agreement with Israel. After the Greek Cypriots announced that they started drilling activities, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the then Prime Minister of Turkey, and Derviş Eroğlu, the then President of Northern Cyprus signed the Continental Shelf Restriction Agreement on September 21, 2011. Since then, the drilling disagreement has been brought into agenda in company with the Cyprus question. |
(PT/SD)