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Minister gives assurances to deputies on energy policy
In the letter, Yıldız said the energy cooperation agreements signed with EU countries and later with Russia, which critics say contradict each other, have strengthened Turkey's central role as an energy hub, playing a key role in the transfer of rich energy sources from the East to western consumers.
In July, Turkey, Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria and Romania signed an intergovernmental agreement on the Nabucco pipeline project, planned to transfer natural gas from the Caspian, Central Asian and possibly Middle Eastern suppliers to Europe.
The deal signed in Ankara was regarded as a "turning point" for the 3,300-kilometer pipeline, designed to reduce European dependence on Russia for energy. But less than a month later, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed an agreement in Ankara under which Turkey allowed Russia to conduct feasibility work for the eventual construction of the South Stream pipeline project, a rival for Nabucco, in its part of the Black Sea.
The Nabucco project represents a new gas pipeline connecting the Caspian region, the Middle East and Egypt via Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary with Austria and later with the Central and Western European gas markets.
Yıldız said the agreements were a confirmation that Turkey was the best venue for the energy transfer routes between Central Asia and the Middle East on the one hand and Europe on the other. These agreements also confirmed that Turkey had a key strategic and geopolitical position, he added.
The government dismissed that the Nabucco and South Stream were rival projects, saying they complement each other in meeting Europe's ever-growing energy needs. "Turkey has made the best move in the energy chess game, where balances change constantly," he said in the letter. "The intensive energy diplomacy will move ahead in an uninterrupted way, and our efforts for the energy supply security of our country will continue."
In a speech earlier this week, main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Deniz Baykal said the South Stream deal will “kill Nabucco” and strengthen Russian domination over European gas supplies. Baykal also claimed that Turkey would get no benefit from the South Stream but suggested that a business group, known to be close to the government and expected to build the Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline together with Italy's ENI, Çalık Holding, may have benefited from the deals with Russia.
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