The planned electricity cable which will link Turkey and the north “will not compete” with the Great Sea Interconnector project, which is planned to link Greece, Cyprus, and Israel, energy expert Dr Charles Ellinas said on Tuesday.

Speaking to news website Economy Today, he said the plan for a cable between Turkey and the north is “feasible” and “likely to become a reality, albeit with technical difficulties”.

He said the market for undersea cables is currently saturated, and that this will lead to delays in the project’s implementation, but that “Ankara’s political will seems to outweigh the economic parameters”.

“It is something that can be done. Whether it is economically viable is not entirely certain, but because it has political dimensions, I believe that Turkey will promote it,” he said.

Despite this, he stressed that the project will not compete directly with the Great Sea Interconnector.

“I do not see it as a project which opposes or competes with the Great Sea Interconnector, because it is a small-capacity project,” he said, adding that it will only serve the needs of the north.

He added that the interconnector project, meanwhile, “is a different kind of project, a bigger one”, especially if extended to Israel.

“It has the support of Europe, despite the difficulties posed by Turkey,” he said.

On this matter, he stressed that “things are dangerous” regarding the current frozen nature of the project, and highlighted that European commissioner for energy Dan Jorgensen had during a recent visit to Greece “expressed strong support for the project”.

“They believe that the project will continue and be completed despite Turkey’s objections. Turkey has a strong incentive to maintain cooperation with Europe, especially in the field of defence and in the defence industry,” Ellinas said.

“For this reason, I do not believe that Turkey will block believe that Turkey will physically block the cable. I believe that it will continue with its negative reactions and threats, but when the time comes, it will not stop it.”

Ellinas’ mention of the cable between the north and Turkey comes after Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan had mentioned it in passing during his visit to the north on Sunday.

Erdogan had said the project is “progressing”, though questions have been raised already regarding an apparent lack of adherence to its originally devised timetable.

Last September, Tuluy Kalyoncu, the former chairman of the north’s electricity authority Kib-Tek’s workers’ trade union El-Sen had suggested that Kib-Tek has the right to cancel its 15-year procurement contract with Aksa over alleged contract breaches with regard to the cable.

Kalyoncu said Aksa was bound by the contract to prepare a feasibility report for the cable within a year of the contract’s coming into force on August 1 last year and present it to Kib-Tek.

El-Sen chairman Ahmet Tugcu then confirmed during an interview with television channel Kanal Sim in December last year that the report had still not been completed, with no announcement having been made almost eight months later regarding the submission of any such report.

The contract was the third procurement deal Kib-Tek had signed with Aksa and had bound them to purchase the energy produced at the Kalecik power plant near the village of Gastria, which is owned and operated by Aksa, until 2038, and to pay for it in US dollars.

Tugcu described the contract as a “betrayal” when it was signed, and the feeling of unfairness in some quarters was heightened when Cyprus Turkish Chamber of Mechanical Engineers chairman Ayer Yarkiner claimed in February that Aksa’s profits in Cyprus had exceeded $1 billion (€924 million at the time) since 2000.

The agreement for the construction of an interconnecting electricity cable was signed by Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz and the north’s ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel in July 2023, with its completion date set for 2028.

This timetable was based on the planning phase having finished and construction having begun in 2024.

Moving away from the matter of the cable between Turkey and the north, Ellinas described the Great Sea Interconnector as a “shield” against the risk of Cyprus being dependent on others for its energy supplies.

“Whenever we have a big problem with the supply of electricity, we are forced to go to the occupied territories and ask for help. It has not happened many times, but it has happened. So, if we do not have our own interconnection,” the risk will remain.

The electricity authority (EAC) most recently requested energy from Kib-Tek in February, which Kib-Tek provided free of charge.