"If the peace negotiations there [Cyprus] are not conclusive, and the EU gives its rotating presidency to Greek Cyprus, the real crisis will be between Turkey and the EU," the daily Zaman quoted Atalay at the end of a trip to northern part of the island, which is occupied by Turkey.
"Because we will freeze our relations with the EU. We have made this announcement, as a government we have made this decision. Our relations with the EU will come to a sudden halt."
Cyprus will hold the rotating presidency of the EU in the second half of 2012. Up to now, Turkey had said it could freeze ties with the Cyprus EU Presidency, if the Republic of Cyprus, which is not recognized by Ankara (see 'Background'), would take on the EU's helm without a solution to the island's division.
Turkey also said it hoped that terms for the reunification of Cyprus can be agreed by the end of the year so that a referendum can take place in early 2012.
However, the climate for any such development appears to have worsened, with Ankara threatening to send military ships to prevent Cyprus from conducting oil and gas exploration in areas of its continental shelf, also claimed by the internationally unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.
Turkish Foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, in an interview with CNN Türk on Sunday, said "Greek Cyprus" aimed to sabotage the reunification talks by going ahead with oil drilling. Davutoğlu said he had expressed the same concern to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's special envoy to Cyprus, Alexander Downer, on the phone and that he will also discuss this issue with Ban during his visit to New York to attend UN meetings next week.
Davutoğlu also hinted that Nicosia might wait for the peace talks to come to an end and then exploit the natural resources with Turkish Cypriots.
He said if Greek Cypriots say they want to do whatever they want in the region, then this situation is rapidly going into the direction of having two states on the Cyprus island, instead of reunification.
