Akar: Cyprus faces heavy price if it defies Ankara’s demands on gas, oil wealth

By George Gilson

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar today threatened the Republic of Cyprus with a heavy price if it does not agree to the co-administration with Ankara of the island's huge hydrocarbons deposits.

Ankara has defied limited EU sanctions and repeated US warnings not to drill for gas and oil in Cyprus' Exclusive Economic Zone, in parts of which US and European energy companies have been granted permits from Nicosia.

Akar essentially a priori torpedoed talks tomorrow between Cyprus' President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish-Cypriot leader Mustafa Ankinci who is calling for a joint committee to manage the island's resources on an equal basis.

Akar was speaking at a nationalistic commemoration of the 1964 bombing of Tylliria by the Turkish Air Force which also used napalm against the civilian population in an area where it sought to establish a breakaway Turkish-Cypriot enclave (Kokkina) as a first step to the partition of the island.

Kokkina was the depot for illegal weapons and troops sent by Turkey to advance its separatist aims.

It was only the ultimatum of US President Lyndon Johnson that averted a Turkish military landing on the island in June, 1964.

The New York Times reported extensively on the crisis.

"Officials here declined to confirm reports that a Turkish invasion fleet had been formed. But they noted that the Turkish Government some time ago announced plans for large amphibious maneuvers and that troops and vessels gathered near the port of Iskenderun. This is the nearest large port to Cyprus on the Turkish coast.

"The Turkish military activity and a military alert that it touched off in Greece and Cyprus prompted the United States to move quickly during the last 24...