The Minister of Economy and Energy Olgun Amcaoğlu said projects that ignore Türkiye and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) were not valid.

The Minister of Economy and Energy Olgun Amcaoğlu evaluated the latest developments regarding the energy equation in the Eastern Mediterranean to CNN TÜRK.

“If you encroach on the continental shelf or exclusive economic zones without the permission of other countries, it is not legally valid. These are deals made through trickery. No treaty protocol can be claimed to be above international law, even though they are trying to bring it up with limitations” Amcaoğlu said and added that projects that ignore Türkiye and the TRNC were not valid.

Responding to a question whether there will be new drilling efforts in Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean region, Amcaoğlu noted that Türkiye’s expectations were very high in the studies that are taking place around the TRNC, as it is in the basins found in the Black Sea.

Minister Amcaoğlu also touched upon the issue of lifting the arms embargo against the Greek Cypriot administration by the US, and said “it is not a random decision that the US lifted the 1974 arms embargo on the eve of Mr. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s statement at the UN general assembly that the time had come to recognize the TRNC.”