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7 November 2011

Italian Senator Supports Turkey and Turkish Cypriots

ROME (A.A) - Italian Senator Paolo Pietro Amato from Liberalist People's Party (Popolo della Libertà' Party) has said that he loved Turkey and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) very much.

Turkey and TRNC are rightful in the oil and natural gas exploration crisis which emerged in Cyprus, said Amato who spoke to AA on Sunday.

Amato became a TRNC citizen last year.

I decided to be a TRNC citizen before I saw Cyprus, because I wanted to support Turkish Cypriots who were behaved badly by Greek Cypriots, he said.

Amato said that his love for Turkey introduced him with the pains Turkish Cypriots suffered.

Commenting on oil and natural gas exploration which was started by Greek Cypriot side unilaterally and caused an international crisis, Amato said that he saw Turkey's position right.

Amato said that if a solution was not found to this problem, it would get bigger.

On September 21, Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Dervis Eroglu of TRNC signed in New York an agreement on the delineation of the continental shelf between two countries in the East Mediterranean.

The deal gives Turkey the green light to search oil and natural gas inside the Turkish Cypriot waters.

The agreement follows a Greek Cypriot move to start offshore drilling for natural gas and oil in the southeast of the Eastern Mediterranean island.

On September 22, TRNC Council of Ministers gave exploration license to TPAO, Turkish Petroleum Corp., to explore oil and natural gas in the sea around Cyprus island.

TRNC President Eroglu met UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York on September 24, and proposed to suspend oil and natural gas exploration until a comprehensive solution was found to Cyprus question or if Greek Cypriot administration insisted on oil exploration, then a committee shall be set up by the two sides in the island, and it shall decide how to share the richness that could be found after the explorations. However, Greek Cypriot side did not give a positive response. Thus, TPAO, by Piri Reis vessel, began geophysical research and seismic data collecting studies on behalf of TRNC on September 26.

In 2010, the Greek Cypriot administration and Israel signed an accord demarcating their maritime borders to facilitate a search for mineral deposits in the East Mediterranean.

The Greek Cypriot side had signed a deal with U.S.-based Noble Energy to start drilling in an 324,000-hectare economic zone adjacent to the Israeli waters.

Commenting on the rotating EU presidency which will be undertaken by Greek Cypriot administration in July 2012, Amato said that Erdogan's move to freeze the relations was correct, adding that Turkey had a reasonable foreign policy.

He noted that Turkey recognized TRNC, and supported a solution in the island as well as the Cyprus negotiations.

Noting that EU rotating presidency of Greek Cypriot administration was wrong, Amato said that everybody knew about the lies told by Greek Cypriot administration to enter the EU.

Greek Cypriots are blocking the use of the EU resources for development of the north of the island, he added.

Amato said that Greek Cypriots were also blocking Turkey's accession in the EU.