Turkey–Cyprus–Israel relations and the Cyprus conflict

Abstract

The discovery of natural gas and oil reserves in Israel and Cyprus’s adjoining Exclusive Economic Zones laid the foundations for wide-ranging cooperation between Tel Aviv and Nicosia in the areas of economy, energy and defence. But it also unveiled big challenges. The Cyprus problem became entangled in the broader international discord over both offshore energy and the increase in Israeli–Turkish tensions. Renewed negotiations between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities, first in February 2014 and then in April 2015, were mainly driven by the discovery of natural gas reserves off Cyprus and the wish of the EU and USA to reconcile the Republic of Cyprus with Turkey and facilitate a Turkey–Israel rapprochement, as the latter might be vital for a ’pro-western’ method of exploitation of the natural wealth. This article, however (relying on primary sources: archives and interviews from Israel, Turkey, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon and United Kingdom), studying the background of the Turkish–Cypriot–Israeli relationship as well as certain political and economic parameters of the geopolitical complex in the Eastern Mediterranean, questions the feasibility of this option in the foreseeable future.