Ethnicity, Religion, Natural Resources, and Security: The Cypriot Offshore Drilling Crisis

Abstract

On September 18, 2011, the Republic of Cyprus announced it had begun the process of extracting offshore hydrocarbons. The announcement sparked a crisis. Great Britain, Greece, Russia and Israel voiced their support for the right of the Republic of Cyprus to recover their offshore hydrocarbon resources. Turkey sided with the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and sent an exploration crew to the disputed waters to protect the claim of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. This begs the question: What factors are responsible for the formation of these alliances? The answer is found by testing four hypotheses (ethnicity, religion, hydrocarbon trade, and security) under the mixed theory utilizing both cultural and non-cultural elements. The hypotheses are tested using the five cases of Great Britain, Greece, Turkey, Russia and Israel. The results are mixed, since each case is unique. Ethnicity explained the cases of Great Britain, Greece, and Turkey. Religion explained the cases of Russia and Greece. Hydrocarbon trade contributed to the explanation in the cases of Turkey and Russia. Finally, the security hypothesis accounts for the cases of Turkey, Russia and Israel. The findings of this study contribute to the existing literature regarding the Cypriot conflict by adding the new actors of Russia and Israel, along with the new dimension that deals with the discovery of hydrocarbons. The findings can also contribute to the studies of internationalized ethnic conflict and geopolitics more generally.