The move comes after President Erdoğan's endorsement of Hamas
Oct 26,
2023. Posted by Balkan
Periscope - Hellas
President
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday openly expressed support for Hamas in the
Palestine-Israel War and announced that sanctions would be imposed on Israel.
In response to this, Turkey and Israel's planned natural gas exploration activities and pipeline construction in the Eastern Mediterranean has been suspended, according to a report from Bloomberg.
According
to the report, Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar, who
was scheduled to visit Israel for bilateral talks on natural gas exploration
activities and pipeline construction in the Eastern Mediterranean, has also
canceled his program.
As of now,
there has been no official denial of this news.
It was
previously planned to transport Eastern Mediterranean gas to Europe through
Turkey. In September, during his visit to the United States for the United
Nations General Assembly meetings, President Erdoğan announced that Turkey and
Israel would conduct joint energy drilling operations in the Eastern
Mediterranean.
He also mentioned an agreement with Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to build an energy transmission line to
Europe. President Erdoğan stated, "Our total trade volume with Israel is
currently $9.5 billion.
We have
reached an initial agreement to increase it to a minimum of $15 billion in the
first stage. Energy collaborations can take us to much more diverse
places."
Israel
possesses proven reserves of 750 billion cubic meters of gas. In 2022, Israel
produced approximately 22 billion cubic meters of gas, with 10 billion cubic
meters of it being sold to Egypt and Jordan. Israel is prioritizing gas exports
to the European Union following Russia's loss of influence in the EU market.
The Eastern
Mediterranean Gas Pipeline, which has been under negotiation since 2014 between
the Republic of Cyprus, Greece, and Israel, was canceled in 2021 following the
withdrawal of the United States.
After this
cancellation, Israel started looking for alternative routes to export gas to
Europe, with Turkey standing out due to its geographical location.
During a
speech at his party's group meeting on October 25, President Erdoğan expressed
his concerns about the ongoing conflict in Gaza. He described it as one of the
most brutal attacks in history and highlighted the high number of casualties,
particularly among children, mothers, and the elderly.
He also
mentioned that many Western countries consider Hamas a terrorist organization,
but Turkey sees Hamas as a liberation and resistance group rather than a
terrorist organization. While Turkey doesn't have a problem with the state of
Israel, it does not condone the actions and brutality of Israel and disapproves
of its behavior, which it perceives as being similar to that of an organization
rather than a state.
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