Alex Christoforou
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
The Duran’s Alex Christoforou and Editor-in-Chief Alexander Mercouris discuss the Putin – Erdogan meeting following the Iran-Iraq, US tensions. For Russia, TurkStream is a geopolitical coup, and for Turkey it is an economic success.
Putin and Erdogan also made a move to broker a ceasefire together in Libya, which has been resisted by Haftar forces.
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The TurkStream pipeline, supplying Russian gas to Turkey under the Black Sea, will boost energy security of the entire southern Europe and the US won’t interfere with it, said Sakir Arikan, managing director of TurkAkim Gas.
The much-anticipated 930km pipeline was launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, during a special ceremony on Wednesday. The massive infrastructure project was completed in less than three years, despite active resistance from Washington.
The US was alarmed that TurkStream would make Europe overly “dependent” on Russian energy supplies – and less eager to buy more expensive American LNG. When asked if he was expecting any further American attempts to derail the project, such as sanctions threats, Arikan said no.
I don’t think so, because the pipeline is already completed and started… Everything is done.
TurkStream wasn’t the first time when Washington threatened Ankara with sanctions, political analyst Yusuf Erim noted, referring to the US push to stop Turkey’s purchase of Russian S-400 air defense systems last year, which ultimately failed.
The Turks have shown that they’re willing to stick to their guns when it comes to matters of national security…. and Turk Stream is a matter of national security when it comes to energy.
Arikan, whose company built the Turkish section of the pipeline, agrees the new route through a “reliable” transit country “will enhance the supply security of gas in this region.”
“We hosted the President of Serbia [Aleksandar Vucic] and Bulgarian Prime Minister [Boyko Borissov] here, also there are some guests from other countries in Southern Europe,” Arikan said. “This gas will directly go to these countries – Greece, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, [Serbia], Bulgaria, maybe Romania, and then go to Hungary and Austria.”
Mithat Rende, board member of the Turkish energy company ENGIE, pointed out meanwhile that the launch of TurkStream allowed Ankara to achieve diversification of energy supply routes, which it was looking for since the late 1990s.
The pipeline is “important for Turkey as we aren’t gas producers,” he told RT. The gas will arrive directly from Russia to a receiving station located some 100 km west of Istanbul, powering Turkey’s largest city but also the industrial zones around it.
The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of this site. This site does not give financial, investment or medical advice.
Huh? Washington gave Bulgaria permission to celebrate?
Meanwhile, Trump and his team are poised to introduce a new term in economics: “retroactive sanctions”. Always on the cusp of innovation, that crew.
They blackmailed/forced/coerced by the US + accomplices to drop the SouthStream Project once, against their very own economic + political interests (foreign + domestic) and they regretted it dearly, now they grown a spine and done the logical + rational decision what is in their interests and become again a partner of this project, you can call it SouthStream 2.0 . The Serbs get their Russian Gas in the end anyway, the Ukrainians got zilch, other European countries will be getting Russian Gas as well, Russia wins again and the US + accomplices loose once again in the long run.
No, the Ukrainians made out OK, in spite of themselves. Now Europe can enjoy twice the Russian gas that the US wanted to deprive it of. Best laid plans, eh?
Made out OK? Not exactly! In the end Ukrainians got a 5y contract, the Russians offered at first only a 1y – Now, the deal is Ukraine drops all those phony/blackmail/extortion lawsuits and got a 5y contract but the quantity of gas + revenues/fees are just 1/2 of prior contracts.
Really “killing”. The “attack” was ‘inappropriate’. For Heaven’s sake, Alexander, even the BBC calls it assassination. (The Russian condemnation was much stronger – ok Erdogan’s proxies were defeated by Suleimani.) It’s without doubt an international crime for which your hero Trump could totally appropriately be impeached, rather than on some concocted conversation about Biden’s corruption. Of course, he won’t be as the whole Washington establishment welcomed this – they just don’t like the timing and/or the blatant acceptance of responsibility. And, Alex – you do seem to have a different view to the Oracle on this – why not say… Read more »
Just one more Washingtonian clusterfuck. Reliable as a setting sun by now.
If Washington himself were at the helm, he’d have scuttled himself to the bottom of the Potomac already.
ISIS is happy. So is Pompeo. Interesting coincidence.
Haftar has already rejected the ceasefire, and Erdogan’s actions seem to have strengthened him to the point where he may soon take Tripoli.