Turkey’s announcement that it plans to build an undersea pipeline carrying natural gas from Turkey to the occupied north is yet another move aimed at forcing new facts on the ground in Cyprus.
This is another extreme act, and it fits a clear strategic pattern: folding the occupied areas into Turkey itself. This project is simply the next chapter after the one piping water from Turkey to the occupied north.
Water, gas, and soon electricity too, all add up to the same thing: total dependency for the occupied areas. That is Turkey’s goal, and it is being carried out step by step.
The Republic of Cyprus is pushing back. It has pushed back from the very first moment, on every front: at the United Nations and at the European Union. Cyprus’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Maria Michael, wrote to Secretary-General António Guterres on 7 August 2026 demanding that occupying Turkey comply fully with its obligations under international law, respect the sovereignty, rights and jurisdiction of the Republic of Cyprus, and withdraw from the unlawful “memorandum of understanding” on building the undersea gas pipeline linking Turkey to the occupied territory of the Republic of Cyprus. Turkey, she stresses, must halt all related activity immediately.
The letter sets out evidence confirming that the occupying power is pressing ahead with this unlawful project. It notes that preparatory work already appears to be under way, with Turkey issuing a maritime notice on 21 July 2026 for the deployment of the research vessels “Oruç Reis”, “Denar Explorer”, “Denar Pathfinder” and “Denar Surveyor”, as part of preliminary survey work linked to the proposed project.
It is plain to see that this latest provocation from occupying Turkey violates the sovereignty of the Republic of Cyprus over its territory and its territorial waters. This lawlessness cannot be waved away by the international community. The United Nations may have no way of answering Turkish illegality, but the European Union has the tools to do so. At a time when the occupying side is also trying to force facts on the ground against Greece in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean, the Union cannot simply watch and do nothing to deter it.
Brussels has the tools that could force Turkey to stop. What’s missing is the political will to use them.
