The Cypriot government on Monday confirmed that it had proposed to the Turkish government that it open Turkish ports to Cypriot-flagged ships in exchange for easier access to European visas for Turkish businesspeople, but the Turkish government swiftly denied that it was considering such an offer.

It was government spokesman Konstantinos Letymbiotis who confirmed the proposal’s submission, saying the move is “part of President Nikos Christodoulides initiatives for the more active involvement of the European Union in the Cyprus problem and the exploitation of relations between Europe and Turkey”.

He added that opening Turkish ports for Cypriot ships is an “obligation” for Turkey, and said the Cypriot government is “working to fully upgrade the framework” of relations between the EU and Turkey, “emphasising that at the core of the progress of such relations are Ankara’s obligations to Cyprus and Turkey’s harmonisation with EU law”.

However, Turkey’s foreign ministry’s spokesman Oncu Keceli quickly denied that the Turkish government was considering such a proposal.

“The claims in the Greek Cypriot press that our country’s ports will be opened to Greek Cypriot ships in exchange for facilitating EU visas for our businesspeople are a product of the imagination,” he said.

The reports of such an offer had first been published in Greek newspaper Ta Nea on Saturday.

The newspaper wrote that it was Christodoulides who “raised the issue with Turkish leadership”.

Since 1987, Turkey has imposed a docking embargo, restricting the entry into its ports of ships registered in the Republic of Cyprus and ships which approach a port in the Republic of Cyprus as its last port of call before arriving in Turkey.

In 1997, that embargo was extended to ships managed by companies based in Cyprus and ships of which the ownership is “of interest to the Republic of Cyprus”. The embargo does not apply to cruise ships.

The ports authority has described these embargoes as “violations as international law”, and said it does not place any reciprocal embargoes on Turkish-flagged ships, except for those which sail from ports in the north. This embargo, they say, applies to ships carrying any and all flags.

However, the ports authority said, the number of Turkish flagged ships and ships sailing directly from Turkey sailing to the Republic of Cyprus has declined in recent years.

It had revealed in August 2023 that only 43 ships sailing from Turkish ports had docked in the Republic of Cyprus in the first eight months of that year, down from 140 in 2022. 

In addition, between 2020 and 2023, a total of six Turkish-flagged ships sailed into ports and moorings in the Republic: four to Larnaca, and one each to Limassol and Zygi.