TRNC News Today 10^th November 2014

Admiral Bülent Bostanoğlu: “We shall move within the given rules of engagement”

Regarding tension arising from South Cyprus, Commander of the Turkish Naval Forces, Admiral Bülent Bostanoğlu, said: “Rules of engagement have been conveyed by the Prime Ministry to the Office of Commander in Chief and by the Chief of Staff to the Commander of Naval Forces. In case of any conflict we will move within the given rules of engagement.”

Bostanoglu said that they are closely and carefully watching all the developments in and around the seas and mainly in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Bostanoglu said: “Turkish Naval Forces has been closely protecting and supporting Barbaros Hayrettin Pasa Research Vessel. At the same time they are watching the drill ship rented by the Greek Cypriot administration from a distance of 9 km. The order we have at present is not to go within 9 km. Therefore no disturbing or harassing incidence has occurred.”

When asked which engagement rules are going to be used if Greece and Israel warships come across in Eastern Mediterranean Bostanoglu recorded: “Rules of engagement have been conveyed by the Prime Ministry to the Office of Commander in Chief and by the Chief of Staff to the Commander of Naval Forces. We will move within the given rules of engagement in case of any conflict. Our Naval Forces will continue its activities of situational awareness in this region.”

Eide : “EEZ is not a part of territorial waters therefore everyone can enter into EEZ including warships”

UN Secretary General’s Special Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide said: “Cyprus has sovereignty rights for specific economic activities within its EEZ however anyone including warships can enter the EEZ . There may be even 10 warships in a given area. It is true that you cannot establish a platform and make drilling within another county’s EEZ. However occupation is out of question. You can occupy a country or its territorial waters. EEZ is not a part of territorial waters.”

Eide called on all sides to turn natural gas into a real incentive rather than an impediment for a solution.

Eide gave an interview to the Weekly Greek Cypriot newspaper Kathimerini and said that there are ways to discuss the hydrocarbon issue now, before anyone loses prestige or gives concessions from their main thesis. Eide said: “If the natural gas issue cannot be solved, tension will escalate, you will see more warships and no one ever knows what could happen in those situations. I don’t believe there is bad intention however you frighten those who want to invest in Cyprus.”

Today at 1:36 PM

Eide pointed out that: “Hydrocarbons are natural richness which belong to the whole island and I believe that it will be under the jurisdiction of central government after unification.

Since everyone agrees on what will happen in future we have to concentrate on this point because natural gas or oil is not a present issue but is an issue of the future.

The revenue will come out 10-12 years after the unification of the island. Therefore, it will be good if we work, think about and develop ideas on long term management of natural gas.”

Eroğlu: “Anastasiades spends efforts to sit at the negotiation table with preconditions”

President Derviş Eroğlu said that to reach an agreement both sides should be at the negotiation table however the Greek Cypriot side is spending effort on preconditions rather than coming to the table . Adding that the proposals submitted at the negotiation table should not be kept secret; Eroğlu said that it is not right to meet all demands of the Greek Cypriots in order to reach an agreement. “I did not say even a little lie to my people regarding negotiations” Eroğlu added.

Furthermore, stating that Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Anastasiades does everything in every way not to reach an agreement, President Eroğlu said that the negotiation table is the place where we can reach an agreement but it does not mean that we should meet all the demands of the Greek Cypriot side.

Reminding that negotiations resumed one year after the Greek Cypriot presidential elections with the Greek Cypriot side using the Joint Statement as an excuse, Eroğlu said that all Greek Cypriot leaders lied to their people regarding the Cyprus issue.

Never-ending story of demagoguery and fairytales

By Loucas Charalambous,

Sunday Mail, November 9, 2014

LAST TUESDAY the general manager of Noble Energy (Cyprus) John Tomich put an end to the fairytale about the construction of a LNG terminal in Cyprus – a fairy-tale that had been served to the people of this country by all our political wizards in the last three years.

Speaking at The Economist conference in Nicosia, Tomich surprised our politicians and journalists by stating that the quantities of gas found did not justify the construction of a liquefaction terminal on land or sea. This served as another reminder of the incompetence and superficiality of all our politicians.

Anyone with common sense would have known from the start that the ‘terminal’ was a fantasy. This column had explained a while back that the prohibitive cost of liquefaction plant (in excess of €12 billion) as well as the huge cost of liquefying and de-liquefying would render such an enterprise unviable even if much bigger quantities of gas were found.

Funnily enough, immediately after Tomich’s announcement, the government rushed to confirm the disappointing news. The government spokesman said that from the results of the drilling, with regard to the quantities of natural gas in the Cypriot EEZ the construction of a liquefaction terminal was not viable.

Tomich made it clear that the only option for selling the gas was through pipelines to neighbouring countries. This will cause our super-patriots to froth with rage as it would re-introduce the nightmare scenario of a pipeline to Turkey.

We all remember the rampant demagoguery by our politicians about the natural gas which they present as our weapon against the Troika. Giorgos Lillikas has surpassed everyone in the populism stakes, even presenting a plan for the advance sale of gas in 2013 that would have supposedly netted us €10 billion and we would not have needed to borrow money from the Troika.

I also remember their declarations that the operation of the terminal would have created 10,000 jobs. On June 26, 2013, the government pompously announced that a Memorandum of Understanding had been signed in Nicosia for the construction of the first Terminal for the Liquefaction of Natural Gas in the Vassiliko area.

We should note that as recently as last Wednesday, after Tomich’s spoiler and the government spokesman’s confirmation, commerce minister Giorgos Lakkotrypis ensured the fairytale was kept alive, saying that the government “is keeping all options open.” In other words, this mockery will continue.

I mention this story because the development comes to confirm the conclusion we arrive at based on all other things happening in our country these days – that we should not expect anything good or positive from the people running this state, which has been going from bad to worse.

It is no coincidence that the achievements of our leaders, in the case of the natural gas, are no different from those on all other issues. We would have been surprised if there was a difference. It would have been foolish to expect those who have made a complete mess of the Cyprus problem, leading us gradually to partition, would have done any better on a complex issue like hydrocarbons.

It would have been equally foolish to expect those who led us to political bankruptcy not to have also led the economy to bankruptcy. It is common sense. The incompetent are incompetent at everything, just as the corrupt are corrupt at everything.

We are forced to contend with ignorant, inadequate and ruthless people, as has been proved by their deeds which are now being dealt with by the courts. Their achievements never go beyond demagoguery and fairy tales with which they deceive people so that they become popular and gather votes.

They are extremely good at this, as has been shown in the case of the hydrocarbons, for which the worst is yet to come, especially now that President Anastasiades has decided to dress up as a Greek warrior.