Plans for a natural gas pipeline to be constructed between Turkey and Cyprus have “generated enthusiasm within the international community”, Turkish Cypriot ‘energy minister’ Hasan Tacoy said on Thursday.

“The progress of the natural gas pipeline project, the most significant step taken to meet the energy needs of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and resolve the problems we currently face, marks a crucial development,” he said.

He also made reference to Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar’s announcement on Wednesday that “offshore operations have begun” for seabed surveys ahead of the laying of the pipeline, and that “foreign companies have also shown interest in the project’s construction phase”.

In light of these statements, he said that “given the fact that the Turkish Cypriot people also hold rights to the hydrocarbon reserves in the eastern Mediterranean, the existence of which is now well established, I believe there are vital steps we must take on this matter”.

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“Transporting natural gas and delivering it to the necessary locations is just as important as its extraction. It is precisely at this juncture that we recognise the strategic importance of constructing a pipeline to facilitate the flow of natural gas between the TRNC and Turkey,” he said.

As such, he said, the planned pipeline project “represents not only a step which will fundamentally resolve our country’s electricity issues, but also the most rational route for transporting natural gas to be extracted from the region”.

He said that Bayraktar’s reference to “foreign companies” showing interest in the project “demonstrates that the project excites not only us, but has also generated similar enthusiasm within the international community, leading to its embrace of the initiative”.

“Thanks to our motherland, we have become accustomed to major projects and have set our sights on ambitious goals. The natural gas pipeline is a step which will positively alter the destiny of not only us, but our entire region,” he said.

Republic of Cyprus complained to UN over pipeline project

The project has not won universal acclaim, however, with the Republic of Cyprus’ permanent representative to the United Nations Maria Michael having penned a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres protesting the agreement reached between Turkey and the Turkish Cypriot authorities regarding the pipeline’s construction.

“The signing of the purported ‘memorandum of understanding’ constitutes yet another deliberate and provocative action by Turkey, in violation of international law, including the relevant resolutions of the security council on Cyprus,” she wrote.

She described the gas pipeline agreement as “null and void, and, thus, devoid of any legal effect”, writing that “the illegal secessionist entity established in the occupied part of the Republic of Cyprus lacks international legal personality”.

A memorandum of understanding for the pipeline’s construction was signed by the Turkish and Turkish Cypriot authorities on July 10, with Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz having said at the time that “this step taken in the energy sector will be a historic turning point in cooperation between the two countries”.

Meanwhile, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel had said that “the project is not for today, but for future generations”, and that “it is a demonstration of our will to leave a stronger, more sustainable and more competitive country for our children”.

Bayraktar had explained the technical aspects of the pipeline, saying that it will stretch from Anamur, in Turkey’s Mersin, to the Teknecik power station, located just outside Kyrenia.

Bayraktar also said that the project would in fact consist of two parallel pipelines, each 56cm in diameter, thus allowing the system to be “bidirectional”, meaning that natural gas will be able to be transported to Cyprus from Turkey, and to Turkey from Cyprus.

The pipelines will stretch a total of 101 kilometres, of which 97km will be under the Levantine Sea.

The pipeline has also faced criticism from the European Union, with the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas having called on Turkey to “respect” the Republic of Cyprus’ sovereignty.

“The EU expects Ankara to respect the sovereignty and sovereign rights of all member states,” she said in July.