Turkey refuses to cooperate with Eni (Italy), because the company has partnership with the Cyprus to explore the eastern part of the Mediterranean Sea for hydrocarbons, Turkish Minister for Energy and Natural Resources Taner Yildiz said.
Ankara has demanded Eni to stop cooperating with the Cyprus many times. Turkey believes that formation of an exclusive economic zone would violate the international law.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said after Nicosia’s beginning to develop the shelf and coastal areas of the island in September 2011 that Ankara and the Northern Cyprus would start joint exploration for oil and gas in the economic zone of the Northern Cyprus.
