Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s claim to have sealed this week’s Russian-Turkish energy deal was exaggerated and surprised the Turkish government, a senior government source told Reuters yesterday.
Berlusconi responded by saying he played a “very active role” in negotiations between the two sides. Under the agreements signed on Thursday in Ankara, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin won Turkey’s approval for the Moscow-backed South Stream gas pipeline to cross Turkish waters to Europe, countering rival EU-sponsored plans, and signed deals to help make Turkey a key regional energy hub.
The deals had already been agreed when the Turkish government received an unexpected last-minute request from Berlusconi to attend the signing ceremony in Ankara with Putin and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the source said.
He said there was more surprise when it became clear that Berlusconi was claiming the accords as his personal success.
“This is the sort of thing that could be a problem diplomatically. But because it is Berlusconi it just made the two leaders smile,” the source said. The project to build a pipeline from Turkey’s Black Sea town of Samsun to the Mediterranean oil hub of Ceyhan is led by Italy’s Eni.
“We were and are very interested as our most important company, Eni, is a main player both in South Stream and in the pipelines.
“We ensured the realization of South Stream in Turkish waters and ensured Russia’s presence as a partner in the pipelines. If this is not a great success, then I leave you to prove it,” Berlusconi told a news conference yesterday.
The Italian government website (www.governo.it) had earlier said Turkey’s participation in the South Stream gas pipeline was “a personal success for the [Italian] prime minister.”
The Turkish government source said it was an exaggeration to say that he played such a role in the agreements. But when asked to respond to the report at the news conference yesterday, Berlusconi stressed again the significance of his role.
“I played a very active role with Prime Minister Erdogan as I was given an explicit mandate by Prime Minister Putin, and a very active role with Putin as I was given an explicit mandate by Erdogan,” Berlusconi told reporters.
(KATHIMERINI, 08/08/2009)