Regarding Turkey’s illegal activities in the Cypriot exclusive economic zone (EEZ), Sia Anagnostopoulou said that “this is the first time we are taking action on such an important issue, and it is a major diplomatic success for Greece and Cyprus. This is the first time the European Union has made a decision to impose measures; that is, to take action to deter Turkey, to really make Turkey understand, in practice, that it cannot trample the sovereign rights of a member state of the European Union – Cyprus – and completely ignore international law. These are targeted measures that go beyond Turkey itself, what will happen with the pre-accession funds, which are very large sums of money that Turkey gets from the EU. The targeted measures also concern foreigners involved in this case – ships from other countries, crews and scientists who participate in the illegal drilling – as they, too, will face sanctions.” “The crucial thing – and I witnessed this myself on Tuesday (18 June) at the General Affairs Council – is that Greece, through the foreign policy it has exercised in recent years, has gained a great deal of credibility, and we can also see this in the European Union’s decision. Both Greece and Cyprus, through their bilateral, trilateral and other cooperation platforms, have managed to shape a foreign policy that is very, very important. And we saw this. These two countries have a say, and they have a very important say, in the Eastern Mediterranean,” she added.
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