The European Council must denounce Turkey’s provocative actions
Statement of MEP Neoklis Sylikiotis, Member of the Political Bureau of the C.C. of AKEL
21st October 2014, Strasbourg
“The European Council must denounce Turkey’s provocative actions and prevent the illegal notice issued by the Turkish Foreign Ministry that has entered into force on 20th October through which regions south of Cyprus have been illegally binded, hence violating the sovereign rights of the Republic of Cyprus, but also the rights of the European company ENI which is currently conducting investigative drilling within the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of Cyprus”. This is what AKEL MEP Neoklis Sylikiotis stressed today, speaking before the plenary of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, underlining that Turkey is violating the sovereign rights of a member state of the United Nations and the European Union; rights which are safeguarded by the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and demarcated with its neighbouring states.
Neoklis Sylikiotis called on the European Council to demonstrate in practice its solidarity with one member-state that is being threatened. He posed the question as to what value does the solidarity clause have when certain circles and forces are deaf to the threats being carried out by Turkey, a country that is responsible for the postponement of the dialogue for the solution of the Cyprus problem, a problem from which the people of Cyprus as a whole, Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots, is suffering from.
With regards the EU’s policy on energy security, Neoklis Sylikiotis argued that the need to strengthen energy security stems above all from the fact that energy constitutes a fundamental human resource to which everyone must have access to. Consequently, the AKEL MEP noted, it must not represent an arena of competition that will develop into economic or military wars, but instead must serve peace and the peoples of Europe. In addition, Neoklis Sylikiotis, underlined towards this end that the forthcoming European Council must ratify the self-evident.
In conclusion, the AKEL MEP stressed that it is unacceptable that the European Parliament is not discussing today in the Plenary Turkey’s aggressive and illegal stand against a member-state, despite the efforts that were made by the Political Group of the European United Left/Nordic Green Left GUE/NGL.
The statements of AKEL MEP Neoklis Sylikiotis were made during the session of the plenary of the European Parliament on the issue of the preparation of the European Council (23-24th October 2014).
