Gazprom Confirms Turkish Stream’s Delays, Blames Ankara’s Political Instability

The lack of any formal agreement between Ankara and Moscow about the Gazprom-led Turkish Stream comes along with likely delays and certain doubts over the project’s future. 

“Due to the fact that the installation did not begin as planned, we are no longer speaking of December 2016,” Gazprom’s deputy chairman Alexander Medvedev.

According to Gazprom, the delays of the 63 bcm pipeline connecting Russia with Turkey have to do with political uncertainties in Turkey.

“As no government could be established after the June election in Turkey, the talks have been frozen for now. The parties have not ended the talks, but frozen them,” Turkey’s Energy Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Sefa Sadık Aytekin told Hürriyet last week. 

TURKEY'S POLITICAL COMPLEXITIES

Over the last hours, Turkey seems to be working on overcoming the political impasse creating a common front against Israeli policies.

‘We strongly condemn the intrusion of the Israeli security forces into Haram Al-Sharif in the morning hours of 13 September clashing with the Muslim groups inside and blocking the entry of the Muslims for a certain period of time by using force’ reads the website of Turkey’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, referring to yesterday’s events in East Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, on Monday, the Turkish Cypriot leader Mustafa Akıncı and the Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades discussed the state of play in negotiations over Cyprus.

‘The leaders believe that the coming months will be critical for the process. They will next meet on Monday 12 October 2015 and Friday 30 October 2015. The leaders agreed to intensify their work thereafter and increase the frequency of their meetings in the coming months, expressing their commitment to work tirelessly to reach a comprehensive settlement as soon as possible’ reads a note.