Cyprus will raise objections to Turkey’s planned undersea natural gas pipeline to the occupied northern region during EU foreign affairs talks in Luxembourg on Monday, according to the Cypriot foreign ministry. Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos will address the issue with his EU counterparts, marking the latest diplomatic push against a project Cyprus considers illegal.
The pipeline, announced in May by Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, is intended to run approximately 97 kilometres under the Levantine Sea from Alanya in southern Turkey to Kyrenia in the occupied north. Turkish officials, including Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz and the north’s self-proclaimed ‘prime minister’ Ersin Tatar, have framed it as a ‘project of the century,’ with an estimated cost of €601 million and a projected operational date of 2028.
Cyprus rejects the memorandum of understanding between Turkey and the north, arguing it violates international law and the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). The Republic’s energy strategy instead relies on the Great Sea Interconnector (GSI), a pipeline linking Cyprus, Greece, and Israel, which European grid operators recognise as the sole interconnector for Cyprus in their plans.
The pipeline’s route and purpose have sparked controversy, with Cyprus insisting its energy planning must adhere to legal frameworks. The north, however, has presented the project as a means to export gas discovered in the eastern Mediterranean to Europe via Turkey. Tatar has stated that the project’s progress depends entirely on decisions by Turkey and the north, with an intergovernmental agreement reportedly in preparation to advance the investment phase.
This diplomatic confrontation in Luxembourg underscores the geopolitical tensions surrounding energy resources in the region, with Cyprus determined to assert its sovereignty and legal rights over maritime energy projects.
