Upon a question regarding the calls from the United States and the European Union to Turkey to stop drilling vessels in the Mediterranean, Erdoğan replied:
“We are currently continuing to implement our own program. We will continue in exactly the same way. How someone gives instructions, how they look, how they evaluate, and such a thing is not in our assessment. As a guarantor country, we make the effort to look after the rights of our compatriots in North Cyprus, in particular in the Eastern Mediterranean and in the South-Eastern Mediterranean.
All of the people of Cyprus will have equal rights in the south and in the north from all opportunities that will emerge in those waters and we struggle for the rights of our compatriots in North Cyprus in order to protect their equal rights.
