Turkish Army Commander’s statements on drilling in the Eastern MediterraneanTurkish NTV news channel (24.10.11, online) reports on statements by Turkey’s Chief of General Staff, General Necdet Ozel, who in a written response to questions by the NTV, commented on various issues such as the ongoing PKK operations, the co-operation with the USA, the relations with Syria and Israel, his views regarding the Sledgehammer trial, new proposals regarding professional soldiers and reducing the conscript duty.

Asked to comment on the “tension” in Eastern Mediterranean, Ozel said that the area is a very important route connecting the Atlantic with the Indian Ocean, which can also be described as an “energy waterway.” He said that lately it has also been identified as an energy deposit, adding another reason to the 10-year-old problem of delineating the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ).

“Our country has a land surface of 780,000 km2 and there is an additional sea territory of 460,000 km2 called Blue Homeland. About one-third of our Blue Homeland is in the Eastern Mediterranean. Turkey is one of the countries with the biggest coastline in this sea, I believe that our EEZ should be proportional to the length of our coastline,” Ozel argued.

He also claimed that the exploratory drilling conducted by the Republic of Cyprus constitutes a violation to the rights of Turkey and the “TRNC” [editor’s note: as he described the breakaway regime]. He alleged that this is a unilateral effort to benefit from the natural wealth which belongs equally to Turkish Cypriots and to sabotage the ongoing negotiations.