By Hale Türkeş, Sinan Polat
ANKARA
There is a need to de-escalate tensions over the Cyprus issue, Head of the European Union Delegation to Turkey Ambassador Stefano Manservisi, told Anadolu Agency Friday.
Manservisi also called for re-launching the negotiation process between Turkish and Greek Cypriots.
The Greek-Cypriot administration suspended talks over the divided island on October 7 when Turkey sent a warship to monitor a Greek Cypriot oil-and-gas exploration mission off the coast of Cyprus, which the Greek side claimed came under its Exclusive Economic Zone.
The Greek-Cypriot side had also submitted a formal complaint against Turkey during a European Council meeting this week over Ankara's move.
"The only thing I can do is call for calm on these very important issues," he said.
Turkey is opposed to any unilateral Greek move to explore hydrocarbon resources around the island. It insists the island's natural resources should be exploited in a fair manner under a united Cyprus.
"We call for respect of the sovereign rights of an EU member state to go on working in its Exclusive Economic Zone," he said, adding that "the gas exploration of Republic of Cyprus was defined by international law."
At the same time the envoy said there should be no escalation.
Referring to the negotiation process which resumed last February after a two-year hiatus, he said "an important process was launched and we hope it will be relaunched."
The previous round of talks had collapsed because of the Eurozone debt crisis and the Greek-Cypriot side's turn to occupy the EU presidency in 2012.
"There is no alternative to these talks, so we call on both parties to resume these talks," Manservisi said. "This is in everybody’s interest."
The Turkish Cypriot President, Dervis Eroglu, had sent a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, last week calling for the relaunch of negotiations with the Greek-Cyprus administration to reach "a fair, sustainable and negotiated solution."
The ambassador said although the EU was not part of the negotiations, which were facilitated by the UN, they "politically and fully support these talks" with a view to establishing a "unified Cyprus as was said in the joint declaration at the beginning of this year".
The EU considers a permanent resolution to the Cyprus dispute as a way to maintain deeper diplomatic relations with Turkey. The declaration signed by the Greek-Cypriot and Turkish-Cypriot leaders on February 11 laid the foundation to resume negotiations to solve the Cyprus problem in a fair, viable and comprehensive way.
- EU willing to work together and open more chapters
The Greek-Cypriot administration also announced Tuesday it would not give its approval to open new chapters in an attempt to block Turkey's EU accession talks launched in 2005.
Turkey must comply with 35 chapters setting out reforms needed to become an EU member. So far, only 14 have been opened, while 17 remain blocked and a further four are yet to be discussed.
"We are all OK to opening more chapters," Manservisi said.
"But even if this cannot happen immediately, what happens immediately in Turkey aligning with the ‘EU acquis’ is an improvement in the living conditions in Turkey and in our relations in order to deal with this very unstable region, which is ours. Not the EU or Turkey, but ours. Therefore, we can deal with all these challenges in a much better way."
The envoy also called for further strengthening Turkey-EU relations. "We have to act not only as friends, but as brothers."
"We are bound to work together because if we are divided, both Turkey and the EU will suffer. Keep that in mind and we will find solutions more easily to many problems," he said.
The island of Cyprus has remained divided into Greek and Turkish zones since a Greek-Cypriot coup was followed by a Turkish peace mission to aid the Turkish Cypriots in the north in 1974.
The Greek Cypriot administration is a member of the EU. It is internationally recognized except by Turkey, which remains the only country that recognizes the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
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