The Minister of Energy, Trade, Industry and Tourism of the Greek Cypriot Administration of South Cyprus has made a joint statement with his Greek and Egyptian counterparts on 25 November 2014 following their meeting regarding the hydrocarbon reserves in the Eastern Mediterranean. These actions and continuing one-sided initiatives of the Greek Cypriot side taken on a platform at which the Turkish Cypriot side lacks representation implies that the Greek Cypriot leadership is disregarding the equal and inherent rights of the Turkish Cypriot people over the hydrocarbon reserves and does not consider as a priority the resumption of the negotiation process, which it has abandoned by showing this issue as an excuse.
We deem is necessary to emphasize once again that the Turkish Cypriot people, as one of the two equal partners on the island of Cyprus, have equal and inherent rights over the existing natural resources within the maritime jurisdiction area of the Island, and that they have as much of a say as the Greek Cypriot leadership over all decisions to be taken regarding the exploration, exploitation and exportation of the hydrocarbon reserves.
As the Turkish Cypriot side, we are of the firm belief that all work related to the assessment of the natural resources around the Island, which belong equally to both communities, should be conducted within the framework of the proposals of the Turkish Cypriot side made in 2011 and 2012 and which still stand, rather than through one-sided inititatives, until a comprehensive settlement is reached. With this goal in mind, the expectation of the Turkish Cypriot side continues to be for the Greek Cpriot side to respect the progress achieved until today and to urgently resume the structured negotiations without any preconditions as expressed in the joint declaration agreed by the two leaders on 11 February 2014.