The Turkish pipelines are waiting for Cyprus’s gas

Opinion Cyprus problemenergyturkey The Turkish pipelines are waiting for Cyprus’s gas Energy Relevant News Cypriot citizen Iermolaiev accuses Ukrainian intelligence of ordering Monaco bomb attack 17 July 2026 The Turkish pipelines are waiting for Cyprus’s gas 17 July 2026 My notes in the desert of hatred 17 July 2026 Aristos Michaelides 17 July 2026 FacebookXWhatsAppEmailPrintViber Sener Levent wrote it in his column in Politis two days ago. It’s worth reading. Because it isn’t just a handful of fringe extremists who see this as one more overture that might tame the beast into finally offering us a solution. Cypriot politicians and parties make the same case, at every opportunity, arguing it’s in our interest, sending Cyprus’s gas through Turkish pipelines. Because that’s what Turkish Cypriot politicians say too, extremists and moderates alike, Erhürman included. So read the story carefully, as Levent tells it. The International Court of Arbitration has ordered Turkey to pay Iraq one billion, 471 million dollars in compensation. The reason: Turkey committed irregularities on the pipeline running between Turkey and Iraq, lifting and selling the oil without the Iraqi central government’s permission, and at that, below the official price Iraq had set. The ruling itself came down some years ago, but Turkey took the case to the Paris Court of Appeal to try to overturn it. It got nowhere. The appeal was rejected. The ruling was kept out of Turkish public view for a while, and has only now come to light. Once the penalty was finalised, the clock started running on payment. The arbitration ruling runs to 277 pages and is dated February 13, 2023. Turkey’s improper oil transfers took place between May 2014 and September 30, 2018. The compensation comes to roughly one and a half billion dollars. A serious sum of money. Levent’s point lands hard: if this is what Turkey did to Iraq, doesn’t that tell you everything you need to know about trusting it with a gas pipeline through Cyprus? Leave aside that Turkey is an occupying power. There isn’t a government in Ankara anyone could reasonably trust with this. People call it a “gang.” They call it a “mafia.” Would you hand your assets to people like that? And on top of everything, this is a power that has occupied part of this island for 52 years. Would you trust our occupier? Levent knows some circles in the south do trust Turkey, mostly out of sheer anger at the Christodoulides government, reasoning that opposition is one thing, but this isn’t the way to do it, not blindly. Does that make it clearer now? If Turkey did that to Iraq, even the most naive among us can imagine what it would do controlling gas transport through Cyprus. The sceptics will call this scaremongering. Maybe. But the Iraqis weren’t scaremongering either, and they still ended up chasing after oil that was moving through Turkish pipelines, oil Turkey simply decided to seize and sell. Turkey has no oil reserves of its own, but wanted to sell oil regardless, so it sold Iraq’s. Nothing more natural than that. That is the Turkey we’re being asked to trust as a business partner. Imagine what it would do if it controlled Cyprus’s gas supply and wanted to pressure Cyprus into a decision that served its own interests. Keep that in mind, because this will come back around, just as it has before, when British publications like The Economist and the Financial Times ran analyses arguing that it made sense to build a pipeline linking Cyprus’s gas reserves to the Turkish pipeline network. Two days ago, Turkey and the “TRNC” signed a memorandum of understanding to build a pipeline carrying gas from Turkey to Cyprus. Levent doesn’t buy it for a second: he asks whether Turkey even has gas of its own to spare, and argues the intention is obvious, that Turkey’s eye is on Cyprus’s gas, and that it is preparing to route it to Europe through Turkish territory. He says there’s nothing hard to understand about that, yet plenty of people are naive enough to believe otherwise. Plenty indeed, Sener, plenty of naive people, in the occupied north and across the rest of Cyprus alike. Watch now, while there’s “movement” on this file, because it will come back around, and we may find ourselves unable to steer it toward what actually serves Cyprus and a solution. Subscribe to our Newsletter Latest News Cypriot citizen Iermolaiev accuses Ukrainian intelligence of ordering Monaco bomb attack My notes in the desert of hatred Yellow heat warning issued for Saturday as inland temperatures set to hit 40C End to the abuse of sick leave No release yet for UK father in Paphos hotel death case Government confirms Agriculture Minister Panayiotou to leave Cabinet in upcoming reshuffle UN chief’s Cyprus visit shows world backs solution, not status quo, government says Follow en.philenews on Google News and be the first to know all the news about Cyprus and the world.