Turkey and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement for the Turkish Stream natural gas pipeline project in Istanbul on Monday.
Energy Minister Berat Albayrak and his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak signed the agreement following a meeting between President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, which continued for 140 minutes in Istanbul.
Putin – Erdogan
Earlier Monday, Putin indicated the need to develop the Turkish Stream natural gas project during talks with Erdogan.
The project, announced by Putin during a December 2014 visit to Turkey, will carry gas from Russia under the Black Sea to Turkish Thrace. One pipeline, with 15.75 billion cubic meters of capacity, is expected to supply the Turkish market, while a second line would carry gas to Europe.
Negotiations over the pipeline were halted after Turkey shot down a Russian jet which violated Turkish airspace over the Turkey-Syria border in November last year but recently talks have resumed.
Last month, Gazprom said construction could start by the end of 2017 if an intergovernmental agreement was signed in October, with the goal of completing the pipeline by 2019.
Turkey, which is the second biggest consumer of Russian gas after Germany, imports around 30 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia annually via two pipelines — the Blue Stream, which passes under the eastern Black Sea, and the Western Line through the Balkans. via Turkey’s Anadolu News Agency
Not only that. Putin and Erdogan in a joint press conference called on stopping the bloodshed in Syria. Russia and Turkey are new best friends so it seems. This could mean that Assad remains in power in Syria. Since one of the objectives of that conflict probably was the construction of a gas pipeline from Qatar to Europe, now Europe must find a new source of gas. South Stream was scrapped under the pressure from the EU and US (on Bulgaria). Now Turkish Stream has a new life. This will give Erdogan new leverage over Europe. He already has that with the migrant crisis but with the gas pipeline he can demand visa free travel for millions of Turks and EU accession.
But Erdogan plays a dangerous game. He puts himself in the cross hairs of the US. After the first failed coup attempt (possibly with US support and some media say that Putin warned Erdogan) there might be other action directed towards him.
This is also potentially dangerous for Greece. Greece, FYROM and Serbia will be under pressure from the US not to work on Turkish Stream. And we all know that Pyatt is already in Greece.
It’s very important to call it “Greek Stream”