Turkey said Tuesday it has halted
joint oil exploration with Syria and threatened to cut energy supplies to its
neighbor as relations sour over the Syrian regime's bloody crackdown on
demonstrators.
"We are currently exporting electricity (to Syria). If the situation
continues like this, we may be in a position to revise all these
decisions," Energy Minister Taner Yildiz said.
Turkey, once a close ally of Damascus, has been exporting electricity to Syria
since 2006.
Yildiz also said that Turkey's Petroleum Corporation (TPAO) has stopped
exploration with the Syrian national oil company in six wells, according to the
Anatolia news agency.
The minister's remarks come in the wake of weekend attacks on Turkish
diplomatic missions in three Syrian cities.
Thousands of pro-regime protestors armed with knives and batons attacked the
missions in Damascus as well as the cities of Aleppo and Latakia Saturday over
Turkey's support for an Arab League decision to suspend Syria.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said earlier Tuesday that Ankara
had abandoned hope that Syria would respond to international demands to halt
violence and initiate democratic reforms.
Erdogan, once a close political ally and a personal friend of Syrian leader
Bashar al-Assad, has for months expressed frustration at Assad's failure to
listen to his people as the death toll in Syrian mounts.