Turkey on Dec. 9 insisted it was not dependent on Russia to build its
first nuclear power plant amid uncertainty over the $20 billion project
because of the crisis in relations between Ankara and Moscow.
Russia's
state atomic agency Rosatom began constructing the plant in Akkuyu in
the southern Mersin province on the shores of the Mediterranean in
April.
But the Kremlin has refused to emphatically commit to the
project's future after Turkey shot down a Russian warplane on the
Syrian border on Nov. 24, prompting Moscow to impose selected economic
sanctions on Ankara. "We need to clearly say that just as we are not
dependent on one door for trade, Turkey is not a prisoner of one
country's technology regarding its nuclear plants," Deputy Prime
Minister Numan Kurtulmuş told the state-run Anatolu Agency. "We know
that there are many countries, many companies that are ready to respond
to Turkey's demands." Akkuyu is the first of three nuclear power
plants Turkey currently plans to build to reduce its dependence on
importing energy from oil and gas exporters like Russia and Iran.
A
second plant is due to be built by a French-Japanese consortium in the
Black Sea city of Sinop while a third plant is also envisaged in Igneada
also on the Black Sea.
"I don't believe that the Russians would
easily relinquish Akkuyu," said Kurtulmuş. Turkey, which imports over
half its natural gas needs from Russia, has sought to emphasise it can
cope with any retaliatory action from Moscow in the crisis. Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Dec. 5 that Ankara could find
alternatives to Russian oil and gas although he emphasised there was "no
sign" so far that Moscow could cut off supplies reports Hurriyet Daily
(balkans.com)