But Vice President Fuat Oktay said during a visit to TRNC coinciding with the breakaway statelet’s national holiday that Turkey would resume drilling off the island next month.
“The hydrocarbon resources of the Mediterranean are not the toys of the Greek Cypriots,” NTV television quoted Oktay as saying.
“Our Abdulhamid Han drilling ship is planning to start its operations in the Mediterranean next month.”
Oktay’s comments come as tensions between Turkey and Greece are already soaring.
Greece accuses Turkey of staging hundreds of illegal military sorties over its chain of islands in the Aegean Sea.
Turkey accuses Greece of secretly setting up military bases on the islands in violation of international agreements.
Waters around the island of Cyprus its southern two-thirds recognized by the international community are being drilled by global energy majors and regional powers searching for ways to diversify their gas supplies away from Russia.