Cyprus: Kombos takes the illegal Turkey–occupied north memorandum on an undersea gas pipeline to the EU’s 27

Cyprus Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos is taking to the table of the EU’s 27 the question of the undersea natural gas pipeline planned by Turkey and the occupation regime. Kombos is attending the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Luxembourg on Monday, October 12, where, according to the Cypriot Foreign Ministry, he will raise “the issue of the illegal ‘Memorandum of Understanding’ between Turkey and the illegal secessionist entity in the occupied areas of the Republic of Cyprus, concerning the construction of an undersea natural gas pipeline”.

Nicosia’s wording is clear. It does not recognise the text as an interstate agreement, since one party is an entity recognised by no state other than Turkey, and it treats the pipeline as a project advancing in maritime areas over which the Republic of Cyprus holds sovereign rights. Bringing the matter to the Council gives the case a European dimension and asks partners to take a position.

From the Oruç Reis surveys to the EU table

The memorandum was signed in July, and last week the Turkish research vessel Oruç Reis began seabed surveys to chart the route, as we reported in Oruç Reis off Kyrenia, where a Turkish minister said the pipeline could in future also carry Cypriot gas to Europe. In the occupied north, Ünal Üstel openly links the project to Ankara’s strategy in the Eastern Mediterranean.

For Nicosia the pipeline is not only an energy project. If built, it would create permanent infrastructure tying the occupied areas to the Turkish coast and cementing the division, at a time when the Republic of Cyprus’s energy planning runs through the fields in its EEZ, cooperation with Greece, Egypt and Israel, and the Great Sea Interconnector electricity link.

What else the ministers are discussing

The Council agenda, as described by the Cypriot Foreign Ministry, includes Russia’s continuing aggression against Ukraine and Russia’s escalating hybrid campaign against the EU. Ministers will also exchange views on developments in the Middle East and on the strategic importance of EU enlargement for European security. An informal working breakfast was scheduled before the start, on countering information manipulation and interference by foreign actors (FIMI) and on strategic communication campaigns.

Whether the Council adopts a common line on the pipeline will be clear from the conclusions and statements after the meeting. For Nicosia, the aim is to have it recorded that the memorandum concerns the EU as a whole and not only one member state.