TURKPULSE No:99
OIL AND GAS
OVERCAST PUTIN’S PROSPECTIVE VISIT
TURKPULSE No:99
OIL AND GAS
OVERCAST PUTIN’S PROSPECTIVE VISIT
With the claim that billions of dollars were pocketed by the previous governments, especially the Mesut Yilmaz Government after mid 1997, through the Blue Stream natural gas deal with Russia, the AKP Government has been carrying out parliamentary enquiries into Turkey’s energy projects and policies. Ankara has already used its treaty option of postponing gas imports via Blue Stream for six months on the grounds of an excess in the gas supply, but the 1 July deadline for it is approaching fast. Thereafter the take-or-pay rule of the agreement goes into force. The Russian Gasprom delegation has been negotiating with the Energy Ministry in Ankara for a way out of this dispute. If it falls through, the alternative is international arbitration. It will also cast a serious shadow on the rapidly growing Turkish-Russian relations and may forestall the realisation of President Putin’s State visit to Turkey this year or next. This adverse development concerning Blue Stream has coincided with President Putin’s State visit to London when the two countries signed a similar agreement for the shipment of Russian natural gas to the UK from under the sea. For the economic and political implications of these two similar agreements on Turkey’s place in the world please see the article below.
TURKPULSE No:100
THE
RUMSFELD TEAM’S “HILL BILLY ATTACK” FLOPS
An American chess game term, “Hill Billy attack,” is certainly the best definition for the American forces’ misplaced aggression against the Turkish military team in Sulaymaniya, northern Iraq, on 4 July. The consequences of this unwise adventure, however, are bound to be much less amusing for the wrongdoers as far as long-term US national interests go in this region. Rather than the Bush Administration itself, the hardliners nested in the Pentagon under the Rumsfeld-Wolfowitz team, which has turned Turkey’s traditionally biggest ally in Washington, the American military, into an anti-Turkish centre, will be the target at Turkey’s contacts with the United States. Please see the article below for an objective analysis of the whole affair from the Turkish angle.
TURKPULSE No:101
GUL’S
TIMELY VISIT TO USA WITH PRECARIOUS RESULTS
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul’s visit to Washington between 23 and 27 July was definitely superb in timing, but doomed to be precarious in its results from the outset for several reasons. It was most timely because it was done at a time when Turkish-American relations had reached the bottom ebb and could not possibly withstand another shock after the 4 July Hill Billy attack in Suleymaniye. Diplomacy had to do something before it was too late. It was doomed to be precarious from the outset because Gul was in no position to commit Turkey on the key issue of military cooperation with Washington in Iraq, no matter how much the Turkish Government and the military wanted it with mutual feelings from the Americans, in view of the irrevocable Turkish distrust evoked by the American soldiers drawing pistols on and manhandling their Turkish hosts, offering them tea smiling and extending expressions of welcome. Please see the article below, which is an attempt to help the Americans and foreigners to understand well the situation and feelings in Turkey.