Speaking to Reuters over the weekend, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister Abdullatif Sener announced that the Turkish authorities would not make any unilateral moves to open the country's ports to Cypriot-flagged vessels, an announcement which is likely to have an adverse impact on Turkey's EU membership negotiations.
The Island's shipping fleet is the third largest in the European Union after Greece and Malta.
Responding to the remarks this week, Cyprus's Foreign Minister, George Iacovou told the news service that:
"If this is what the deputy prime minister has said, then they are on a collision course with the EU. It is only a matter of time."
He continued:
"The Republic of Cyprus is a member state of the EU. Its accord was required for Turkey to commence negotiations. We gave this after ensuring that Turkey would behave in a certain manner."
"There is a rendezvous, where Turkey will have to give account of the progress it has made so far ... if it continues to maintain this line, irrespective of its phoney arguments, it will put itself on a collision course with the EU."
It was initially hoped that the Turkish government's signature of a document extending its customs union with the EU to the ten new member states would result in a lifting of the ban on Cypriot-flagged ships and aircraft.
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