NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Turkey's prime minister says a Greek Cypriot search for oil and gas off Cyprus is "dangerous" and is throwing efforts to reunify the ethnically divided island into deadlock.

Binali Yildirim says Turkey sees the east Mediterranean's potential hydrocarbons wealth as an opportunity for regional cooperation.

But he called the search by the island's Greek Cypriot dominated government as "one-sided" and "badly timed."

A consortium composed of France's Total and Italy's Eni is now conducting exploratory drilling 104 miles (167 kilometers) off Cyprus' southern coast.

Turkey, which doesn't recognize Cyprus as a state, insists drilling flouts Turkish and Turkish Cypriot rights to Cyprus' mineral riches.

Yildirim was speaking Thursday in Cyprus' breakaway Turkish Cypriot north during celebrations for a 1974 Turkish invasion that followed a coup aiming at union with Greece.