Greek Cyprus

Türkiye has strongly condemned the expansion of the scope of the decision taken by the U.S. in September 2020 to lift the arms embargo on Greek Cyprus, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has said.

In a statement issued on Sept. 17, the ministry highlighted that the country "fully supports" the reaction of Turkish Cyprus authorities regarding the decision.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has invited Greek Cyprus leader Nicos Anastasiades to North Cyprus upon the latter's demand for setting a meeting, Turkish private national broadcaster CNN Türk has reported.

According to CNN Türk, Anastasiades came side-by-side with Erdoğan in a NATO Summit in Madrid, Spain, twice last week.

A defense agreement signed between France and Greek Cyprus is against the 1960 treaties that provide equilibrium between Turkish and Greek Cypriots on the island and poses a risk for the already fragile stability and security, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a written statement over the weekend.

Greek Cyprus President Nicos Anastasiades urged Turkey on Feb. 21 to lift its blockade of offshore gas exploration that would benefit both the Greek and Turkish Cypriots if the island is reunited.

While the Greek Cypriot administration started to discuss the next moves after the collapse of the peace talks to unite the divided island, the Turkish government is also in a similar exercise.

Cyprus Mail, a Greek Cypriot newspaper, blamed Greek Cyprus President Nikos Anastasiades for the failure of an international conference for the reunification of the island, citing anonymous United Nations officials who said the Greek Cypriot president had insisted on "zero troops, zero guarantees," despite the fact that the Turkish side announced its readiness to withdraw a large majority of tr

The president of Greek Cyprus rebuked a United Nations envoy on May 30 for speaking of a possible crisis over the divided island's search for offshore oil and gas, calling the remark "unacceptable" and a "threat" amid faltering reunification talks.

Greek Cyprus saw its best ever receipts from tourism in 2016, data showed on March 1, in a record year for the Mediterranean holiday island considered a regional safe haven.

Tourism income last year reached 2.36 billion euros ($2.48 billion) compared to 2.11 billion in 2015, an 11.9 percent increase, according to official data.

Greek Cypriots will no longer require visas to visit Turkey under an EU-Turkey agreement on visa liberalization, however this does not amount to Turkish recognition of Cyprus, a Turkish official has said. 

Greek Cyprus has launched a third licensing round for offshore oil and gas drilling off the Mediterranean island's southern coast.

"The decision to launch this licensing round was based on the huge interest by international companies to carry out explorations offshore Cyprus despite the energy industry's not so favorable conditions," said government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides.