Middle Eastern countries

Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı received the UN special representative at the capital Lefkoşa on Jan. 10. 

The meeting with Elizabeth Spehar took place at the presidential palace.

Turkish Cypriot officials say it will take two months to restore a submerged water pipeline from Turkey, following an incident due to severe weather.

Kudret Özersay, the deputy prime minister and foreign minister of the Turkish Cyprus, announced on Jan. 9 that he will run for 2020 presidential race.

Özersay said on Facebook that he will run as an independent candidate for the elections slated for April.

Turkey on Thursday rejected a joint statement released by the foreign ministers of Greece, Cyprus, Egypt and France which denounced two memorandums of understanding signed between Turkey and the Tripoli-based government in Libya, arguing that it "is based entirely on factitious arguments and false premises."

Turkish and Greek diplomats will hold their first regular political consultations following a dispute over Turkey's maritime delimitation deal with Libya. 

Nicosia has accepted a request from Washington regarding the arrival of an American Rapid Deployment Forces unit for humanitarian purposes in case of an emergency.
According to the Cyprus News Agency, the United States asked the Republic of Cyprus to give its consent for an American military unit to be stationed temporarily on the island.

The Greek Cypriot-Greek governments' deal to build a natural gas pipeline in the eastern Mediterranean without consulting Turkish Cyprus can only be described as a hostile attitude, Turkish Cypriot Premier Ersin Tatar said on Jan. 5

The Turkish Cyprus Foreign Ministry has described the EastMed Pipeline Project agreement signed by the Greek Cyprus, Israel and Greece as the latest hostile and provocative attempt to exclude the Turkish Cypriot people and Turkey from the energy equation in the region.

The events of these days will shape our region's future in ways that we cannot predict. Thursday's signing of the agreement between Greece, Cyprus and Israel for the construction of the East Med submarine pipeline prompted the Turkish National Assembly to ratify a decision to send troops to Libya.

Straight on the heels of the signing by Greece-Cyprus-Israel of the EastMed pipeline agreement in Athens, the Turkish foreign ministry blasted the deal as yet another effort to lock Ankara and Turkish-occupied Cyprus out of the east Mediterranean oil and gas game.