"We will start drilling operations off Cyprus, with two ships, in the coming days," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu was quoted as saying by the official Anadolu news agency. European Union-member Cyprus has been pressing to develop offshore gas deposits and has signed deals with energy giants Eni, Total and ExxonMobil that have seen them carry out exploratory drilling. Ankara claims that such exploration deprives the Turkish Cypriot minority of benefiting from the natural resources that surround the island.
Analysts fear there is a risk that the tensions over the resources could escalate into a major standoff. "We will not stop searching for hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean simply because the Greek Cypriots do not want it," Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday.